


Sujin Cafe

by Riyusama



Category: BORN (band), Jrock, SCREW (Band), Visual Kei - Fandom, the GazettE
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Bullying, Depression, M/M, Psychological Traumas, Self Harm
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-12-16
Updated: 2016-12-27
Packaged: 2018-05-07 01:58:39
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con, Underage
Chapters: 9
Words: 44,891
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5439248
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Riyusama/pseuds/Riyusama
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A nice cafe at your favourite park is all you need to cure a broken heart.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Character List (Visuals)

**Author's Note:**

> Hiya guys! So as you may know(or not) that I am revising my old fanfic Sujin cafe. It was firstly posted on LJ and since, I wanted to take this fanfic seriously I am going to rewrite it as a whole and finish it properly as I originally wanted it.
> 
> Also since I am still a writer who was heavily influenced by the LJ community I am making the first chapter the character list *lol* it will be updated as the story progresses.

Manabu Tachibana ( surname for this fic )

    

Jin Teishikata

    

Kazuki Akamatsu ( surname for this fic )

    

Ryoga Tokaku (surname for this fic )

    

Kai Uke

    

Byou Masahito

    


	2. Visit 00: A Bitter Cup of Coffee

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, this is un-beta and stuff as usual... My little sister is taking way too long to proofread this for me so yeah... Enjoy you guys ouo

He hates cafes.

Manabu decides as he stays firm on his seat, body feeling as though it was paralyzed. He held in his hands a steaming hot cup of coffee, touched only once by his lips as he took a sip on it earlier. Dark brown hues stared at caramel ones as the raven found it hard so much as to even blink. He couldn’t tear his gaze away, can’t bring himself to do anything.

And the raven wanted to shout, he wanted to throw tantrums, flip tables upside down and break a few chairs even. But, he didn’t… couldn’t—wouldn’t do such a thing; so instead he sat lifeless on his seat as the colours drained from his face. Not that there was any colour there to begin with, his pale white complexion that made him looked malnourished must’ve made him look as though he was already dead.

Yet, he really does feel dead inside.

“I’m sorry,” came the other’s voice who sat in front of him. The brunet hadn’t even touched his own drink yet, nor had he glanced at Manabu’s direction throughout their whole conversation. He wanted nothing more than, to have those alluring orbs of vigor to stare back at him. Those eyes that made him fall in love, eyes that always twinkled with that certain gleam of light in them that got Manabu breathless; he would fall down to his knees with just a glance. And now, not even a second was given for those pair of brown hues to turn to him.

“Kazuki,” he finally found his voice after long intervals of silence. He tried to fight back the tears that were forming in his eyes earlier and now, he was desperate for them not to fall from the edges of his eyes and make streams down his cheeks.

He swallowed thickly, saliva not enough to fully quench his dry throat. Manabu couldn’t bear to look at him anymore; his head fell down, body huddling close as though he was trying to cower into a small ball to keep himself safe.

 _‘The world in a cruel place.’_ the voice in his head said.

A sniffle escaped him; he had fought so hard to keep strong. He didn’t want to look weak in front of the only person whom he had been strong for. Fingers gripped tighter on the cup in front of him, not caring anymore if he was burning his skin from how hot the mug was. He wanted the pain to the point that he needed it.

“Mana—“

“So, you’d pick him over me?” he inquired, voice dripping with bitterness “After all he’s done to you?” he just had to ask _why_. Why out of all the people in the world, it had to be him “After everything I’ve done _for you_.” he pulled out a nasty card, yet he was already on the verge of begging. He would do **_absolutely anything_** not to lose this one battle.

“Yes.” Kazuki answered softly.

His head shot up quick from the other’s reply; he couldn’t help but let the tears fall from his eyes. He can’t be strong anymore. Manabu has finally reached his breaking point.

“I love him.” it was as though Kazuki was adding insult to injury, it truly felt like that and Manabu couldn’t stop himself from hiccupping in his tears. “Not you,” He gritted his teeth, feeling a bit of snot dribble down from his nose so he had to sniffle and do his best not to look like a mess in front of the other.

“I have to go now.” Kazuki said with finality as he stood up from his seat yet, Manabu was quick to look back at him. He stretched his arm out, hand grabbing a hold of the brunet’s wrist as he clung to the only light and hope he ever had in his life. He held on for dear life.

“Please please, don’t Kazuki.” the raven pleaded.

“Mana I can’t, please let go.” the other replied back, tugging his hand away from the raven as Kazuki couldn’t bear to gaze at the younger. He can’t look at him properly when the brunet knows that he was the cause of all the pain that Manabu was feeling. He was the source of it all, the heartbreak, the misery, the sacrifices and so much more that he knew Manabu had to give up for him.

“Don’t leave me Kazuki…” Manabu whispered. He could give no care at all that he and Kazuki were displaying a scene in a public café. He ignored all the people starting to stare at them as murmurs ran about in the area. The raven doesn’t care anymore; they were in their own little bubble—in a world of their own where only Kazuki and Manabu existed.

That world was slowly shattering and starting to erase from existence.

He hadn’t noticed how strong Kazuki was or was it that he was becoming so weak already? The sadness had drained him far too far than, he had expected. He was weary down to the bone, probably to the very core of his soul even. Manabu cannot express how badly in the pits of agony he had gone to.

Kazuki had escaped from his grip, the other mouthing out a few hushed apologies as he bowed his head. He took his bag with him, not turning back to give one last glance at the raven as the brunet ignored everyone around them. He walked in long strides that made it seem as though he was running away. And for Manabu, that was practically what had happened. He watched the back of the love of his life move away from him. Abandon the younger and most probably never come back to him again.

Manabu had to cover his mouth with the palm of his hand. His hand that held Kazuki; it still burned with the phantom warmth of the other. He felt the ghost of the brunet in his hand as an essence, a small whiff of the other’s scent caught onto his skin. Manabu didn’t know if he should be thankful since the scent could help calm him down, yet it also proved to further rub it in Manabu’s face that he wasn’t the one.

 _‘I’m not the one he chose, he doesn’t love me.’_ he mused internally, tears didn’t cease to form and run about to escape. He opened his eyes and was able to catch a teardrop fall onto his cup of coffee.  He stared for a moment, watching as the salty liquid mixed with the dark rich colour of his drink.

“Coffees will always taste bitter now.”


	3. Visit 01: The Crème Brûlée Path

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Woaaahh!! So here's chapter 1 ~ it took me a while to post this but, I'm so glad that I could update this fairly quickly owo
> 
> It's a lil short but, I hope you guys like it <3 chapter 2 is on it's way too! As soon as I update Beyond the Pale first though lol

                          The feeling of a gentle summer breeze took a whirl to his direction, the wind knocking against his body. There was a rather nostalgic scent in it that had the raven closed his eyes for a moment. All around him, he was surrounded by nature, the greenery doing its job to wash away his dark thoughts and at the same time, to dissipate the loneliness he felt. Yet, not even Mother Nature herself could help him when he heard all the chitter chatter of those who also enjoyed his favourite park.

Manabu opened his eyes again and was faced with the reality that he wasn’t alone on his favourite place. You turn your gaze to one corner and you’d see a family having their picnic on the soft dewy green grass, avert your attention to the other side and you’d see a couple of kids laughing and tumbling on their feet with their best friends or siblings. And the worse of them all, no matter how much Manabu had tried to block and channel out the scenes in front of him, he would see a happy couple here and there. The raven would see beaming faces that stared at one another with such affection, hands holding whilst they swayed in a cheesy way like those in the movies and those horrible giggles of delight that came from each other.

Eww. Gross. Disgusting.

There was a word to call people like Manabu and it started with a big letter B. Bitter. And he probably wouldn’t even try to hide nor deny it. Manabu for first and foremost was actually getting sick of all the coddling and red petal roses path whenever he would so much as turn to either side of the pathway he was walking through.

It made him cringe, the very idea of couples itself. He walked in a faster pace, feeling his own stomach churn in havoc at the people all around him. How dare they be happy or more like: how dare they be happy in his presence?  But alas, Manabu is just one lone teenage high schooler who more or less dislikes a lot of things. The raven feels a little bit of ire running through his system, making him feel even grumpier, and his stomach doing impossible flips.

Or is he just hungry?

The thought made him pause, he halted , ceasing all actions and stared at nothing for a few moments. _‘Did I even eat breakfast today?’_ the query came about in his head and the raven retrieved all memories of this day from when he first woke up.  And the answer to that question was he indeed has not eaten anything yet at all.

He grumbled in annoyance, Manabu remembers waking up with a horrible headache, a sour taste in his mouth and feeling extra bitter with a side of salty on his mood.  The raven checked his wrist watch; it showed him that the time was exactly 1:30 p.m. and that he was already late for lunch.

“I should get something to eat,” he mumbles out to himself, one hand moving to touch his growling stomach. He stupidly rubbed it a few times, as though the action could help lessen the hunger he felt as he started walking again “Where should I eat?” he asked himself, voice low enough so it wouldn’t attract any bystanders or people that walked passed him to think that the raven was crazy.

He really didn’t feel like leaving the park just yet, he’d only arrived a little over 3 hours ago. And to anyone that would complain as to why the hell he was walking around some dumb park for 3 hours Manabu would just raise up his middle finger at them and tell them to _fuck off_ ; because who doesn’t like parks and their sweet serene areas filled with nature.

 _‘Where to eat, where to eat,’_ he questioned over and over again in his head. Outside the park, there were a few restaurants that he had all tried out, a ramen shop just a few blocks away from here, an Italian restaurant a couple of blocks closer, a fast food chain (specifically McDonalds ) and lastly, a cake shop which was the farthest from all three food caterers and the park itself.

He contemplated, not really feeling up to eating anything too heavy. And to which was an idiotic idea because the raven was already deadbeat close to starvation yet, he didn’t want to eat anything that wasn’t sweet.

“Sweet…” Manabu murmured “that’s a first.”

The raven was already close to the decision of maybe just going to a silly fast food place to get an ice cream or something when the idea crossed his mind _‘Wasn’t there a new café here that opened up a few weeks ago?’_ he said internally and a smirk immediately came across his lips at the thought. He hadn’t tried out that new place yet, and what better way to critique if it was a good place than the present.

 _‘That café better be good enough to open itself on my turf,’_ he thought smugly.

Averting his direction, Manabu turned his head from one side to another, trying to remember on which path he had come across the little café. _‘It was something like…’_ he started in his thoughts then, blurted out “Souju Café?” he questioned, voice dripping with uncertainty as the raven’s features scrunched up into a scowl. He hadn’t paid enough attention to firmly remember the place’s name but, the raven was sure that it started with an “S” and it rhymes closely to what he had said.

“Souji? Sounjun… Suju Café?” Manabu mumbled out a couple of names in hopes of accidentally blurting out and finding the real name.

As he was deep in his thoughts, remembering both the name and to which part of the park the café was located at: he hadn’t been able to process the fact of his surroundings. His eyes were open yet, weren’t seeing everything, ears hearing the sounds around him but, not fully registering nor giving much thought to them. And so, it was no surprise at all when Manabu hadn’t noticed someone running at their top speed, footsteps heavy and their head hung low as though they hadn’t a care for their surroundings as well.

“Sunjuju—Ah!” He yelped, completely taken aback of someone suddenly slamming their body against him.

It was probably inevitable but, Manabu would flat out decline.

“Ouch, what the fuck—“

“Aw aw,” the stranger whimpered, he was rubbing the top of his head, probably the part that collided with Manabu’s chin. As Manabu’s eyes fell on the other, he noticed long locks of blond hair; the stranger seemed to be wearing some sort of waiter uniform as he fell down on his bottom to the ground.

The raven rubbed his aching chin first, one hand stretching out to the blond “Sorry, I wasn’t looking where I was going.” he admitted, leaning down to help the other out.

The blond looked up to him, Manabu saw the bluest eyes he could’ve have sworn he’d ever see. There was a small scowl on the other’s lips “No it’s cool, I mean… I wasn’t looking where I was going either anyways.” he said with a shrug of his shoulders, looking away from the raven as he stood up for himself, not taking Manabu’s hand and started to dust his shirt and pants off any traces of dirt that may have come to him as he fell.

“Guess it’s a fault-fault then,” Manabu replied.

As soon as the stranger had finished to pat the dirt off his clothes, he looked back up at Manabu and beamed at him “Touché,” he said before he started to walk away turning into a slow run “Sorry anyways! Be more careful next time!” he shouted looking back to Manabu as he waved good-bye to the other.

Manabu watched the blond go into a full sprint, running from the other direction of the path till the raven could no longer decipher nor see him.

“Sujin Café,” he mumbled out of the blue. Manabu blinked a few times, seeming to have a slow process in his head for today before his lips shaped into an “o” and a delighted smirk graced his lips “That’s the name.” he said before he started to walk back to the direction he was going to.

“Now to find that darn place,” he muttered.

The raven glanced from each side with every walk, turn and step that he took. For some odd reason, it seemed to be rather hard—no _impossible_ to find the place he was looking for. And yet, Manabu was sure that he had strolled pass the café a dozen of times when he came to visit the park, and approximately had gone pass it around 3 to 4 times today.

He scratched his head in frustration, grumbling a few times as he made a turn to the left. He was sure that he already walked up to this path, yet Manabu had to take a double-check just in case he was becoming blind for the day.

“It just can’t disappear,” he groaned out in irritation.

Every minute that passed by made Manabu even angrier, his stomach growled even louder making the raven feel a mixture of both embarrassment and ire. He grimaced at the sounds coming from him; he wasn't pleased at all at how this day was turning. Manabu had started to stomp, fist clenching a tad as he took another left turn. He hid his clenched knuckles, shoving it into the pocket of his pants as he looked up to his surroundings.

“Maybe I’ll just—“ and he couldn’t finish his sentence when his eyes gazed upon a big name board perched on top front of a classical looking house. The letters were intricately designed in cursive, yet not in a way that was too fancy that it couldn’t be read properly; coloured in a calming tone of orange as it sat on the background of white.

_Sujin Café_

It felt as though his body was now moving on autopilot; Manabu wouldn’t want it any other way. He was far too gone to be thinking properly already, one would say he was on the verge of starvation even—hungry enough to eat a horse.

Manabu pushed a hand through the double doors of the café; and as soon as he had entered the sweet scent of coffee filled his senses. He took in a deep breath; the aroma around him seemed to be heavenly intoxicating... that or Manabu was really just hungry.

The raven looked around him, there weren’t a lot of people in the café _‘Just the way I like it,’_ he mused internally. His eyes scanned the area around him before his attention fell upon one lone seat by the window. It was for a couple’s seat obviously but, it was fashioned in a way that only one chair was placed that it made it seem all the more that it was made specifically for Manabu.

He took a seat, glanced to the window beside him and smiled in delight. He was right in thinking that the place was perfect. To his left, Manabu could see the beautiful green sceneries of the park. Trees and an abundant of bushes, grass and leaves of all sorts could be seen. The best part of all was that it wasn’t by the pathway so; Manabu could never see anyone walking by his window. This spot was made for him.

As the window’s scenery sidetracked him, he hadn’t noticed someone walk to his place and leave a menu on his table.

“Ehem, welcome to Sujin Café!” a rather familiar voice boomed in.

Manabu’s attention was easily caught by the speaker, head turning as his eyes blinked a few times when he saw the other, “Oh hello,” was Manabu’s first words as his head tilted to the side a bit. “How’s your bottom doing?” he asked, a little smirk following up to his lips as his elbow perched up on the table so his chin could rest on the back of his hand.

A blush easily came by the waiter’s cheeks, fingers fidgeting on the paper and pen he held in his fingers , as blue hues averted from Manabu’s own dark ones.

“Oh ah…” he started in a stutter.

Manabu chortled, easily amused by the blond waiter’s reactions.

“It’s better now,” he answered still “And your chin?” the blond asked in embarrassment.

“You didn’t break my chin,” Manabu waved off in dismay. In truth, when the other had bumped into him, it hurt like hell and Manabu was about to curse at the other’s stupidity though, the raven knew for a fact that he was at fault too anyways. Besides, it’s not like his parents raised him in a jungle to shout profanities at random strangers.

He checked the menu that he had noticed was placed on his table, fingers grabbing a hold of it as the raven opened and looked through every food the café had to offer “So, my order right?” he replied, trying to keep it casual.

His waiter nodded, followed by a “Yes sir!”

A hum was his only reply; thumb lightly rubbing along the laminated piece of menu as he read every line on it. The café had a whole assortment of food up their sleeve, mostly a western type of set if Manabu may comment. He could barely see anything that came with rice, which was considered a side dish here as he read on the menu.

“Coffee, black.” he said out first. Initially, Manabu came to the café so he could have something sweet, yet he would never fail to order his strong black coffee first. His waiter nodded, waiting patiently for Manabu’s next choice of orders. The raven found it rather hard to pick, it seems that for once he had realized that he knows next to nothing about sweets “Croissants, make that a double.” he continued.

“Will that be all, sir?” the blond inquired politely.

“No.” Manabu replied.

His waiter arched up one inquisitive brow, looking at his costumer puzzled. Manabu placed his menu down on the table and smiled sheepishly at his waiter “Well, I was kinda hoping that you’d help me out?” he said, not knowing how to properly form his thoughts out “You see, I want to try out eating something sweet. But, I don’t know what would be easy to handle since not all sweets would probably be a good combination for black coffee.”

Manabu shifted on his seat, wondering if he had said his thoughts out properly. The raven was never good in conversations, he was always a lone wolf. And so, it wouldn’t be a first for him to be looking like a mousy, timid little 5 year old whom was talking to an adult. He glanced down for a moment, afraid that maybe his waiter would make fun of him. His paranoid little mind playing tricks on him again yet, he still found himself looking up and when he did, Manabu swore he had seen one of the cutest smiles he had ever seen.

“I’m glad you asked!” His waiter answered in glee “I really don’t know much about coffees, since they’re too bitter for my taste.” The blond started to ramble on, pen twirling around in his fingers “But, from what I know Crème Brule is actually pretty tame.” he said off with a firm nod of his head.

“Crème brûlée?” Manabu echoed out the other’s words.

“Yeah!” His waiter sufficed “I mean, you can always go with fruit salads, which is healthier too. But, if you’re looking to be adventurous today then, I would say Crème brûlée, or you can go for Buko Pandan.  Though, I’m pretty sure you’ve never heard of that one before.” the blond continued, head moving from left to right from time to time as he spoke.

Manabu considered all the choices he was given; it was true that fruit salad was on the menu when he had scanned it. He was even on the verge of ordering it anyways just for the kicks of having something sweet to munch on. Yet, he did think that maybe it wouldn’t be a good combination with his coffee, so Manabu was glad that he had asked the blond’s opinion first before diving on head first to his orders.

“So, you think crème brûlée would be a good choice?”  he inquired to the other once more time.

His waiter nodded his head with fervor “Definitely! It’s just like leche flan, though less syrupy and all that.” the blond answered.

“Leche flan?” Manabu asked again, brows furrowing in question.

“It’s like a different type of crème brûlée, which is—never mind,” his waiter sighed “it’s gonna be a long explanation. But, let’s just say leche flan is sweeter than, crème brule.” he waved off his hand “Also, it’s not on the menu anyways so you’re safe from its sugary sweet goodness.”

The raven laughed “Really? If it’s a lot like crème brûlée then, why isn’t it on the menu? Or is it exactly just the same anyways.” he teased.

His waiter fake gasped, looking as though he was offended “Of course not! There is a big difference between leche flan and crème brûlée!” he added a tone of making it sound like he had a French accent when he said crème brûlée.

Manabu swore he would’ve smiled like Cheshire the cat because he was trying to keep down the fits of laughter that was planning to escape from him. The raven shook his head, trying to keep calm since he didn’t want to laugh out loud in such a nice and sophisticated looking café. He cleared his throat, still beaming at the waiter whom had a cheeky smile plastered all over his features.

“I’ll have a crème brûlée then,” Manabu started off.

His blond waiter nodded “Alright, so you’ll be having a black coffee, two croissants and a crème brûlée for dessert. Should I serve your dessert immediately or wait for you to finish your meal first?”

“Those seems about right,” Manabu replied when the blond had repeated his order “And serve it along the meal, I’ll probably eat it first before the croissant anyways.”  He shrugged his shoulders a tad.

“Alrighty, you’re order will be out in a jiffy!”

“Thanks,” Manabu said, quickly leaning in close to the other before his waiter could move away. The raven scanned at the blond’s chest, glancing at his nametag before looking up at the other with a smirk “Jin.”

Jin nodded, walking away so he could work on the raven’s meal at the same time, moving from one customer’s table to another as he was called. Manabu watched the waiter out of boredom. He watched the blond move about and talk to other people, though the raven’s attention was quickly averted when he realized that he was being like a creepy stalker, even more so when Jin had turned around and saw that Manabu was staring. The raven felt as though his cheeks were on fire, feeling himself go on a different level of embarrassment as he quickly gazed to his side on the windows instead.

He hadn’t caught it but, Jin had chuckled at Manabu’s actions; finding it a mixture of awkward, cute and maybe even creepy. But, Manabu’s wide-eyed expression and flustered look got the best reaction from the waiter anyways.

And as Manabu turned to the green sceneries instead, he found himself easily distracted. Quite easily forgetting about his earlier predicament as Manabu had gazed upon the dancing tree leaves, how intricate and rather delicate they seem to sway about. The raven suddenly wished he had brought his glasses, having a not so sharp eyesight really didn’t have its perks at all. The raven wanted to have an even clearer view, to see the leaves that would flow through the breeze’s hands then, be pluck out from its branches and go through the whirlwind ride till, it would finally land upon its new destination on the ground—

His thoughts got the better of him again. Manabu had now entered into a new world of his own, and sometimes it was good… sometimes it was downright horrible. But for now, it felt rather neutral for him. There were no sad thoughts, memories nor voices in his head that taunted him. There were only shallow deep ideas of nature and none of the things he should be mourning about.

 _‘Mourning is such deep word,’_ he mused internally _‘Nobody died…’_ he continued off _‘Except for my heart.’_

He winced, mumbling out a nearly inaudible “aw,” from his own thoughts. There it was again, that bitter feeling that never left him. It was probably like a shadow or tail of his, always following.

Yet, before he could delve in too deep to his own darkness, from the corner of his eye Manabu had caught a glimpse of his blond waiter again. He was on the other end of the café, hands placed upon the counter as he was talking to one of his fellow co-workers. He seemed to be enjoying their conversation as a smile was etched onto his lips. He turned his head; somebody must have called out the blond’s name to get his attention. His waiter friend walked into the kitchen and a few seconds later emerging out with a tray of food in his hands.

The sight of food suddenly made Manabu’s mouth water, he had forgotten – which is a total mystery for him at times, that he was hungry. His stomach had stopped grumbling a few minutes ago but now faced with the reality that he hadn’t eaten breakfast or lunch yet; his body was telling him with ferocity that he was on the verge of starvation.

His stomach grumbled as Manabu kept his eyes on the tray. Jin had chatted a little more with the other waiter, laughing about something that Manabu couldn’t hear about.  He would careless about their conversation though, the raven wanted nothing more than to shove food down his throat and to maybe even shove a steaming hot cup of coffee down there too. He was desperate to say the least.

Finally, after seconds that felt like an eternity to the raven Jin had started to walk. Manabu wasn’t sure at first if the order was his, but his eyes strained on the meal and was sure that it was his. If it weren’t though, Manabu would certainly throw a fit inside his head. He licked his parched lips; his blond waiter was walking to his way with the tray of food in his grasp.

“Sorry for the wait,” Jin said as he finally arrived at Manabu’s spot.

The raven only waved his hand in dismay, trying not to look desperate in front of the blond. He was hungry yes, but not stupid enough to make him look like a fool in public “Finally,” he mumbled out anyways, he couldn’t keep his mouth shut for that one word.

As soon as his waiter had placed his cup of coffee on the table, Manabu’s hands were quick to grab a hold of it. The raven savoured the heat it provided to his hands, skin tingling a tad from the mug’s temperature but, he ignored it. Manabu watched, charmed by the smoke coming off on top of the dark liquid. He inhaled the coffee’s scent, smiling in delight as he took one sip—

“Aw!” Manabu exclaimed as quietly as he could… he forgot the coffee was hot.

The raven could hear Jin giggling beside him. He shot one glance at the waiter, seeing as Jin found it hard to pry the smile off his lips as he placed his croissants and crème brûlée in front of Manabu. When the blond had done his work, he waited at Manabu’s side still; tray was pressed close to his chest and he looked to be as though he was waiting for something.

Manabu arched up one inquisitive brow, about to ask the blond if he needed something but, Jin had beaten him to it.

“I want to see your reaction to when you first taste your crème brûlée,” Jin started off giddily “Or are you eating your croissant first?” he asked with a tilt of his head.

He huffed a small laugh, placing the mug of coffee down before the raven took the small dessert spoon and moved his crème brûlée closer, pushing the plates of croissant to the side at the moment. He could hear Jin gasp in glee; probably unable to contain his excitement was Manabu’s thought of the overly giddy blond.

He scooped up a generous amount on his spoon, then chewing the food. He let the taste linger on his tongue, humming as he did so. Manabu’s eyes blinked a few times, seeming to savour the moment before he took another scoop from his spoon and ate another.

“This tastes awesome,” Manabu complimented, spoon pointing to his crème brûlée.

Jin’s smile looked as though it could light up an entire city, his lips seemed like they went up from ear to ear like Cheshire the cat—that or Manabu’s being too excessive in his way of describing the blond. But, he’ll have to admit that the waiter looks really cute when he smiles.

“I knew you’d like it!”


	4. Visit 02: A stolen cup of coffee

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Notes: Wooohoooo!! Finally updated this fic ~ To anyone that's read the old version of this fic, you'll see that I still follow it's format with just a few tweaks here and there. This is  un-beta, couldn't find anyone to proofread my fanfics recently ;w;
> 
> By the way... The food here dessert wise anyways is so leaning towards Filipino cuisine lol. You guys can just search it up but yeah, I'm proud of adding my own country's food here ouo 
> 
> Also, debut for the characters here! You guys will be meeting a lot of characters =w= Ah, also some trigger warnings?
> 
> Warning/s: Depression, self-harm(leaning), and bullying (leaning again)

 

                                                       **T** he moment Manabu opened his eyes; he could see nothing but pitch black darkness. He blinked a few times to make sure that he wasn't hallucinating yet, nothing seemed to change. There were a few seconds of thought wherein the raven had thought that maybe he had gotten blind, yet when he looked down on his own hands, Manabu was not shocked to see his own hands, the complexion of his arms to his shoulders he could see vividly, it was as though he himself could light up but only to the extent of being able to see his own.

He turned around, eyes averting from left to right as he scanned the area thoroughly. It was an abyss, a room full of nothingness and Manabu didn't know if he was in the middle or at some far end corner of this room; if this really was a room to begin with. The raven heaved out a sigh, right hand moving up to ruffle his dark locks, fingers brushing on them frustratedly.

He decided to walk around, aimlessly going around this black hole of a place _'Anywhere is better than staying put in one place.'_ he mused to himself, head still glancing from left to right in an attempt to see anything but, the darkness. _'It would be nice if I could meet someone here, a guide or anything at all!'_ he continued internally, hearing his own footsteps echo loudly in the large expanse of darkness. He wondered if maybe he would be able to see any living person at all, maybe some trees, a house, an animal maybe even, there was total absolute nothingness and not even a gentle knock of weak wind was there to touch his skin.

Manabu wondered if there was really any air in here to begin _with 'Heck, I'll take seeing or hearing a small fly at this point!'_ he angrily thought, walking faster and faster out of anger.

Everything and everywhere around him was a big black nothing, he stretched his arms out both out of fear and curiosity. As much as Manabu had the courage to stroll around this dead end of darkness, there was no lie that he was afraid... very much afraid of what could be lying in this darkness.

"Hello?" he tried to be braver, calling out into the abyss.

The raven walked a few more, almost jogging at this point with his arms stretched wide to his side and front, alternating from time to time "Hello! Is anyone there?" Manabu tried again, but to no avail there was no answer to his pleas.

He was starting to give up hope; maybe he really was alone in this cold dark place... Not that it was cold though, Manabu felt neither heat nor coolness in the place, and it was simply black everywhere. And as his pace started to quicken, almost running around the empty room a sudden thought crossed to his mind.

_'Am I dead?'_

It was quick and harsh, slamming him down on cold reality.

 _'But... I don't remember anything happening to me.'_ He started.

Manabu felt a cold shiver run down his spine, body trembling in non-existent chill as his skin grew on goose bumps. It was a natural thing for the raven to overreact at small things and to always worry too much, jump to conclusions and the likes, but there were no answers for him to grasp upon at the situation. His hands moved up to his face, feeling his own cheeks have the temperature of ice as he touched them.

All of it was starting to add up and it didn't help for the fact that the raven was starting to hyperventilate. He wanted to curl to himself and not think at all, or maybe find answers or just anything at all to distract him from this hell that he had created for himself. He needed something... someone to pull him out of this.

And out of nowhere, it was as though his prayers were answered.

The raven wasn't crying, no he had never ever allowed himself to cry—the last time he had done so was probably years ago in his childhood. And so, when he heard an unfamiliar sniffling in a far off distance Manabu was left to a halt. He was sure he hadn't imagined that, was absolutely positive that he wasn't the one crying so all senses were high as Manabu focused on that one sound that suddenly filled the silent room.

There it was again, another sniffle and a choked sound. Manabu straightened up as his head whirled all around in search of the origin of that sound. It was faint, almost too low and quiet for it to be properly distinguished yet, Manabu heard it. He could hear it as it was slowly fading away back into the darkness.

"Where are you?" the raven asked, starting to walk again. The sound was there yet, Manabu could not decipher on where it was exactly, he couldn't pinpoint the exact location on where he should be going, to turn to the right or to the left.

The sound became more evident, sniffles being turned it cries as Manabu was starting to have a horrible feeling down in his stomach. For some odd reason, that crying sounded familiar, it was as though it was from someone he knew and Manabu did not like where this was going.

"Where are you!" he tried again, shouting out in hopes for the other to answer him back.

He was always running, sprinting from any direction to the pathless way where he thought that was where he heard the sounds "Answer me!" He called out again, voice almost pleading "Where are you!" he screamed out, desperate to know of the other's whereabouts.

Manabu searched frantically, running till his legs couldn't and turning to different places that looked exactly the same to where he was from. He couldn't escape, but he'll be damned if he couldn't find the person whom was crying.

He gritted his teeth in anger, fists clenching tight as his blood boiled with red hot ire. He couldn't stand not knowing, can't stand this darkness that surrounded him and so, he ran faster, ran till his legs hurt and his knuckles pale white that his nails that dug into his skin felt as though they were drawing out blood.

"Please!" Manabu begged as he got close to the crying sound that steadily getting clearer and clearer in his ears... Manabu could start to hear that person better and he could thoroughly distinguish the direction as to where his feet should be going.

And for some odd reason, Manabu could feel his feet walk on themselves. It was as though his body was working on autopilot and the raven was in no control whatsoever on what he could and could not do at the moment. His body was running yes, that was initially what he had been doing and plans on doing till he finds the other person yet, it felt as though there was another force outside of him.

Another force that was far more greater, far more powerful that Manabu was left with nothing but submissiveness to obey to that higher power.

Yet, even when it felt as though it was impossible for him to regain control, it seemed as though it was inevitable for his body to decline. Slowly but surely, his legs had started to hurt harder, it was a chore itself to keep his body up and going, he was still running at his full speed but with the weariness he felt it was as though Manabu could feel himself collapsing any time soon.

It was a herculean task itself to force his body to move, he can't stop, can't give up now when he feels as though he's this close to finding the other person.

"Where are—" he screamed out for the other person but, he couldn't finish his sentence when his body finally gave up on him. Manabu fell face flat on the dark floored room of nothingness. His body was sore and he felt sweat pouring out of every pore on his skin. The raven gritted his teeth, pushing himself further up as he could still hear the cries.

_'Close.'_

His mind reminded

_"So close...'_

"Wait," he whispered out lowly, as Manabu made his body stand up again. He felt prickles of tears cornering out at the edges of his eyes; they were dangerously close to falling and Manabu could feel himself giving up. He pushed himself to run, his body screamed out in ache and pain but, he could care less.

The cried were getting louder; Manabu could almost feel another presence amongst the emptiness. He took in a deep breath, gathered as much strength as he could until he saw—

"Kazuki," the name slipped off his lips and Manabu felt another surge of energy run in his veins as the raven sprinted to move to the other's side.

"Kazuki!" Manabu shouted as he fell to his knees, hands moving to the other's shoulder and searching if the brunet was hurt. He stared at Kazuki's tear stained face, his cheeks red as though he had been crying his eyes out for hours.

"It hurts, it hurts..." Kazuki mumbled out, lightly swaying himself back and forth as tears streamed down his cheeks "Mana..."

"It's alright," Manabu reassured as he wiped away the other's tears "Don't cry, I'm here." he kissed the brunet's forehead, fingers brushing along soft brown locks "I'm here, you don't have to cry." he hugged Kazuki close to him, hand gently massaging the brunet's back "Please don't cry, tell me where it hurts."

He didn't know how he could properly ease Kazuki out of crying, Manabu didn't even know where to begin to heal him. All he knew was that the brunet was in deep pain, he could feel it by the way the other was trembling in his arms.

"Mana," he heard the brunet say and Manabu could feel the other's arms wrap around him. And he couldn't help but, let a small smile tug on the corner of his lips.

"Yeah, I'm here." he continued, nuzzling his face on the crook of the brunet's neck "I won't leave you."

The cries slowly faded, going on to little sniffles. Manabu could hear the little hiccups that Kazuki produced and the small wet tears that gently stained his shirt, it was warm and fragile he thought to himself. Kazuki, his Kazuki was crying and Manabu was once again here to save him. Manabu heaved out a little sigh of relief as he hugged the brunet close to him, he never wants to let go, he should never had let Kazuki go, he would protect and cherish the brunet forever.

Manabu would never do anything to hurt him.

And as seconds passed on, the crying grew quiet; it was as if it had never existed in the first place. Manabu tugged the other close to him, but it felt as though there was nothing on his arms. The feeling of Kazuki has slowly dissipated and now, there was this nothingness in the raven's arms.

He opened his eyes and found himself hugging onto nothing, there was no Kazuki.

"Ka—"Manabu tried to call out but, was distracted by the light he saw glowing behind him.

In a haste, the raven turned around to see Kazuki standing behind him. The brunet's tear stained face was gone, it was as though he hadn't been crying at all in the first place. There was a soft and gentle smile that was on his lips, the smile that Manabu had grew to love from all those years they had been together.

"Kazu.." He stretched out his hand, wanting to touch the man of his affections.

"What are you talking about Manabu?" came the sudden question that had the raven arching up his brow.

Out of the blue, arms wrapped around the brunet's waist and Manabu could see the familiar outline of the only man he had ever hated more than, himself. A smug smirk was on his lips as brown locks softly meshed with golden hair "Byou would never hurt me." Kazuki continued, a smile full of warmth that beamed happiness yet, that smile was not for him.

The brunet held hands with Byou's that were wrapped on his waist possessively, pulling the brunet closer to him. A chuckle escaped Byou's lips as he kissed Kazuki's neck in a way that was to taunt Manabu, and to add insult to injury, he heard Kazuki moan in delight.

"You bastard!" Manabu shouted as he moved to assault Byou yet, he found himself stuck on his place. It was as though the raven's body was paralyzed and he could not move an inch. Manabu with all his might tried to break free from the invisible chains that held him down to the floor. Everything was white and sparkles seemed to come out of nowhere like from a disgusting shoujo manga but, Manabu could feel nothing but his heart tearing apart.

The image of the two started to disappear and Manabu still couldn't break free from his paralysis "Kazuki!" Manabu called out to the duo that was slowly moving away from him "Kazuki, Kazuki!" Manabu said in tears as he reached out—

"Ahh!" Manabu screamed and as he opened his eyes again, he found himself to be in a different setting. He was breathing heavily, clothes drenched in sweat. The raven glanced down at his body and saw himself tangled heavily with the sheets on his bed.

He grunted in disgust, sitting up to the edge of his bed as Manabu fought hard with his bed sheets to strip them away from him. Elbows rested on his thighs as Manabu let his face rest on the palm of his hands.

 _'Another dream,'_ he muttered internally, feeling himself tremble in anger. There was a wave of tears that threatened to leave his eyes but, Manabu fought hard not to cry. It was the same emptiness only he was reminded again and again even in his sleep.

"Shit." Manabu cursed as he pulled himself up, trying not to wallow in self pity as one hand grabbed his phone that was at the bedside table "9:28..." he grumbled in annoyance, it was too early to be wallowing in self pity, the raven hadn't even eaten breakfast yet and he was already ready to cry like a child.

He gulped in his own saliva as Manabu gathered enough strength to stand up from bed. He and sleep never seem to get along, whenever the raven would try to rest it would always taunt him of the past and make Manabu wake up depressed and weary. Yet, he was slowly getting used to having less and less sleep; it was starting to become normal for him to sleep on an average of below 5 hours.

_'This is not healthy.'_

The raven quickly directed himself to the bathroom. His apartment was small enough that a few walks could get him from one room to another. It was small but, it was the raven's territory; better than, having to live at his parent's big house back at Osaka. Manabu felt more at peace knowing that he was the man of his own home... though, if he did miss one thing about home, it was his mother's cooking. Manabu could never quite properly feed himself without wincing at the taste of his cooking.

He turned to his side, glancing at the bathroom mirror and saw himself as a heaping mess of distraught hair, pale sweating body and pajamas that were soaked in said sweat. Manabu grunted, feeling utterly disgusted with the sight of himself. He stripped himself of his clothes, easily discarding them in the basket full of dirty clothes that were steadily piling up into a mountain in the room.

 _'I should probably clean that up too soon,'_ he muttered out internally.

Manabu debated whether he should shower with steaming hot water or ice cold, a question which took him nearly a minute to decide. The weather outside was still a freezing chilly bliss, a fact that made the raven shiver. And so, the option of using cold water to wake himself up was quickly ruled out in favour of hot. Manabu waited till the water was hot enough to hurt yet, not too badly that it'd give him burns _'Would be bad if someone asked what happened,'_ he scolded himself internally.

The water made Manabu's skin ache in dull numbing pain, only making him hiss for a moment before he stood under it. It didn't matter that he was standing doing nothing, just feeling the heat hurt him as his skin started to redden at the pain.

 _'It doesn't compare to the pain I feel inside,'_ a voice said inside his head _'not enough to actually hurt.'_

He sighed tiredly; he had lost count to how many sighs he had made in the start of the morning; more would probably come later on the day. With much effort, the raven forced himself to pour a decent amount of shampoo on his palm to clean himself. He was straining himself on energy, since he didn't actually feel like doing anything at all.

It didn't matter that when Manabu scrubbed at his skin, it was mixed with anger and hatred. He wasn't at all concerned to his reddened skin that burned with heat, he didn't care whether he would injure himself in the process of cleaning himself up.

He felt dirty for no apparent reason.

The only thing that the raven was probably looking forward in his day was to go back to his favourite park. It was the only place that understood him... or what felt close to him being understood anyways.

 _'Sujin Cafe,'_ was the thought that came by out of the blue. He stilled for a moment, halting in his ministrations of washing out the soap on his body _'Jin...'_ it was rather queer to associated the blond waiter to the cafe; although he was obviously working at the said cafe.

In a haste, Manabu started fasten his pace in cleaning up. He didn't want to stay coped up in he tiny cramps of his apartment. It wasn't because that he had suddenly felt suffocated by the small space, but it was for the fact that he felt as though he was being suffocated by himself... by the loneliness that emanated from himself.

Out the bathroom and back to his room, Manabu took out a plain white shirt from his wardrobe and paired it up with a black jacket; pants weren't much of an issue so he picked whatever one his hands grabbed first. He styled his hair first, not wanting to look like a mess when going to the outside world then, put on whichever shoes fitted his clothes.

He took his wallet, shoved it down his pant's pockets along with his phone. Then, hastily left his apartment; making sure he locked the door.

The second time Manabu checked the time it said 10:15; it made him sigh once again. Even just the simple act of sighing made the raven feel as though it was draining much too much energy from him.

Luckily, his favourite park was just a short walk away from his apartment.

He walked straight ahead for two blocks, took a right turn straight ahead again then, a left before seeing the entrance to Kousaku Park. Manabu took in a deep breath, feeling a small smile crept up to his face as his eyes lit up in that small euphoric bliss that only his favourite place could ever give.

A gentle breeze was what greeted him, knocking against the raven's body as it came mixing in with the wafting atmosphere of happiness from the other people whom came to visit the park. He could hear the chitter-chatter of people and the laughs that erupted from either side, a bursting sound of joy or just soft quiet giggles from strangers.

Yet, that was not what made Manabu's mood lighten, it was the mere place itself. Its sceneries never ceased to lift him up and shoo away the bad vibes even if it was just for a minute. He walked onto the familiar path he had grown accustomed to; would probably be able to walk around it blindfolded as the raven was sure he knew the lenient way like he knew the back of his hand.

Eyes roamed the place, taking in the beauty that was mother nature herself. Manabu took joy in feeling the earthy soil under his shoes, the clean cut grasses that were trimmed by the maintenance crew of the park, bushes that grew about in unexpected places and corners of the area-sometimes unnoticed as it looked to be placed there by plan, tall trees that took place in nearly every crook and cranny of the park, flowers that adorned the ground with their beauty as tree leaves would dance around with them as they fell from branches.

Everything in Kousaku Park was magnificent and Manabu felt content.

He sat himself down on one of the park's benches, enjoying the not so isolated solitary time he had given to himself. He observed the people around him, as to what he normally does if the raven wasn't idly watching the greeneries.

It suddenly had occurred to Manabu that he had forgotten to bring a book with him "Great," he muttered under his breath as caramel hues looked down to his hand and seeing his open and close on his own volition.

Elbows rested on his thighs as the raven placed his chin on his own two palms "What should I do now?" he asked himself quietly.

Books were what usually accompanied Manabu on his horrible mood swings; they were his own personal bestfriend. Or his rebound for a bestfriend recently, since that one person he never wanted to lose just happened to replace him for a certain blond headed--

 _'Nope! Not going there!'_ Manabu quickly stopped his thoughts before they could further insinuate themselves in his head.

A grumble escaped the raven's lips, thoroughly dissatisfied with how his day was going until a certain ache and sound caught his attention. It wasn't that Manabu was ignoring or right out blatantly throwing his good health away but, he couldn't help but forget.

 _'I haven't ate breakfast yet,'_ he said internally; the sudden realization dawning on him.

A huff of breath was his reply to his stomach, mind blank on any decision at all on how to solve his little predicament.

 _'Cafe,'_ it was as though his head was betraying him. Manabu wanted to become a numb, non-thinking human being for a second but, it seemed as though his head was adamant on filling his stomach. He grumbled in dismay, feeling himself become such a burden. Manabu was exhausting himself in walking to Sujin Cafe just to eat; he feels so offended of himself.

Another sigh; he should sign himself up for guiness book of records for most sighs in a day. Reluctantly, the raven stood up from the park bench and started walking hiss way to the path he was still trying to familiarize himself.

Manabu took pride in the fact that he had been coming to Kousaku Park frequently, yet for some odd reason he still hasn't completely remembered the correct path to take when going to Sujin Cafe. It was some sort of sorcery that Manabu couldn't quite put his finger on. It was as though his brain was magically messing with his memory so Manabu would restart on trying to find the said place; which was downright such a grueling task. Manabu was in no way an athletic type of person, rather he _hated_ with an emphasis any sort of exercise. The raven was never fond of exerting such energy then, becoming a sweaty, smelly and grossly sticky mess.

The raven preferred the easy life, wherein he'll just sit on a nice comfortable chair and be left alone on hours end with either a book or his gadgets.

Yet, he persevered on anyways, his growling stomach was no laughing manner. Also, a nice walk from time to time couldn't hurt; it was good to stretch out the bones he rarely used... Even though he was against moving at all costs. He took a left turn on the path where a playground was near, another left turn too where he remembers a large nara tree sitting by the path and then, the view of a small homely looking cafe comes into view.

 _'There you are,'_ he mused gleefully.

The small cafe would've been mistaken for a house if it wasn't for the big intricate cursive lettered board on top of it that said "Sujin Cafe," and Manabu couldn't help but let the place's name roll off on his tongue. It did have a certain nice ring to it.

Manabu couldn't help but etch a smile onto his lips. The westernized double door of the place was one of the many things that the raven rather adored, it had a simplicity to it that improved the cafe's image. Two hands pushed against it; it was childish but Manabu liked being able to do that big dramatic entrance wherein you appear out of two doors that open.

In an instant, the sweet scent of coffee and pastries filled the air around him. The aroma waft around and filled his nostrils with bliss as Manabu took a step in the cafe; immediately becoming satisfied with the presence of food amongst him. And to further brighten his mood, as the raven averted his gaze to scan the area, it seemed as though there was only a handful of people. It was a delight that Manabu would savour for the day; his eyes fell upon the spot he had taken before, seeing as it was empty the raven manuevered himself to the place and sat himself down on the table.

Caramel hues turned to the humongous window to his side and Manabu felt content; it featured the greeneries of that the raven had come to love in the park. It was simple, a couple of trees here and there, bushes growing from some far right corner if you squint at it a little and a myriad of flowers could be seen--and Manabu would bet his money on it that the flowers were a product of the Cafe's since he hadn't seen those around the park at all.

He watched in contentment as red and orange petals danced with the wind, small violet flowers swaying along side them---

His attention was averted when he felt someone move beside him. Manabu glanced to his side just in time to see a silver haired waiter staring at him whilst he walked away. Manabu arched up one inquisitive brow to which the man only replied with a smile before he looked on ahead.

"Hey Jin!" the waiter called out; Manabu's gaze followed suite to where the waiter headed and he caught sight of the blond waiter whom had served him earlier "Take care of the customers man, I can't be doing all the work myself!" the raven heard him say as Manabu saw on the man's hands a tray full of dirty plates he was taking care of.

"Are you insinuating that I'm slacking off?" He heard Jin reply with a laugh before lightly hitting the silver haired waiter's arm "You're so mean Ryoga-chan!" with that, Jin left off to come to Manabu's table.

The blond headed waiter had a smile plastered on his lips with a menu tucked in his arms as he looked to the raven "Oh it's you!" He beamed "You're back again, that's good to know," he said cheekily, handing the menu in his hands to the raven.

"The way you say it makes it sound bad you know?" Manabu retorted.

Jin only chuckled, watching the raven open the menu and scan the food listed "Depends on how you perceive it. Though obviously, you coming back makes me happy."

Manabu couldn't help but avert his attention to the blond headed waiter when he heard Jin's reply. He arched up one inquisitive brow, though he was thoroughly amused with Jin's words anyways "Are you trying to hit on me?" Manabu jokingly said as he glanced to his waiter; he noticed by chance that Jin's once sapphire eyes were a dark shade of green; reminding him of the greeneries that the outside park offered. Yet, as he remembered the nature outside it only occured to him what he said, and by the time Manabu realized what he had blurted out, it was already too late to take it back.

He was the one that sounded like he was hitting on the waiter; he didn't even know if the dude was interested in dudes as well.

"Pfft please, I wouldn't hit on customers; especially those I don't know the name of." Jin replied back whilst pursing his lips, hands on his own waist.

The raven was over-thinking again; he should act cool and try not be as gay as possible... Even though, he really has no intention at all of flirting with Jin; no matter how cute the waiter looks.

"So that means once you know a customer's name you put the moves on them? Yikes, looks like I picked the wrong cafe after all." Manabu teased instead, gazing over to Jin whom the raven in surprise saw pouting in offense.

"I do not!" the blond replied indignantly.

Manabu couldn't help but laugh, seeing as he got an even cuter reaction when Jin pouted all the more "I should be wary of giving my name then, wouldn't want myself to get harassed."

His blond waiter huffed in irritation, eyes rolling to the side "I'm starting to think that you're a really annoying customer that I'll regret meeting." Jin stated off, pointing his index finger at the other "The only time you were cool was when you ate that leche flan last time."

It was the raven's turn to finally switch his amusement to one of question, arching up one brow in inquiry "Leche flan? I didn't order that." he said simply.

Jin's reaction was to halt and stare at the raven in confusion as well, blinking a few times as he tried to retrieve the memories of their last encounter a couple of days ago "Oh yeah, we don't have that; was it buko pandan then?"

The raven hummed in reply, eyes looking back at the menu in his hands. Eyes glanced at the desert part of the menu and his gaze read the words buko pandan "Nope, it was..." he continued, trying to find the name of the sweet treat he had ate last time.

"Ah! Creme brule!" Jin suddenly exclaimed out.

His sudden out burst earned him a look from Manabu; the waiter looked back at him weirdly as he turned around to see their other customers looking at the blond. Jin's cheeks instantly flushed red in embarrassment; his white haired co-worker as if on cue, walked passed the blond and lightly smacked Jin's head with a menu.

"You're noisy, quit making a scene." He was scolded, the other waiter moving to one of their newer customers "Don't scare the customers or else, Kai-san will get mad at you."

"Sorry Ryoga-chan," the blond replied back meekly before he looked back to Manabu "You got me into trouble!" Jin hissed.

"I'm sorry," Manabu apologized yet, he couldn't keep himself from smiling mischievously "I'll take your chicken club sandwich with mashed potatoes and salad on the side, also a cup of coffee, black." he stated simply, ignoring the other's irritation.

Jin grumbled under his breath, "Is that all sir?" he asked.

"Yeah, I'm good with that."

"Alright, your order will be up in 5 minutes." Jin said before he walked off to the Cafe's counter that had a window to where the customer area and kitchen were separated with a wall.

Manabu's attention drew back to the window by his side; eyes gazing on the green scenery. He sighed contently _'I could get used to this'_ the raven mused. So far, his first visit to the cafe was good, he liked the food and even when his blond waiter was annoying, Manabu has to admit that he can give good suggestions on what to eat... or maybe, it was just on sweets, the raven can't really say much about Jin yet.

He wished he could hear the soft breeze whispering out in the park, how the leaves would reply in rustles whilst the birds would chirp along in the background. Manabu was dramatic like that, since he can't read his novels that he left back at home, the raven was left with nothing but moping around in his seat with nothing to do but, to whine internally about how he can't enjoy the outside world.

Although, if the raven were to be honest he never really liked the outside as much as the next guy. A bookworm who was a total tech nerd, Manabu wouldn't mind himself being defined as one of the living embodiment of a home person. The very fact that the lack of customers the cafe has at the moment only proved to improve Manabu's mood.

Being out in the park surrounded by happy families and couples? That would only deflate not only Manabu's mood but, his energy as well.

He started to hum out of the blue, the boredom finally boring into the raven. He turned to his side for a moment, checking if there were other patrons close by before his attention diverted back to his own world. Even as he always kept to himself, it was no lie that Manabu was still very conscious of his appearance to others... rather, he cared deeply of how other people perceived him.

Fingers started to unconsciously tap against the wooden table; he was humming out a tune he couldn't quite remember the title of the song. Even the lyrics itself were out the raven's grasp, he could only remember the how the beat of it went, the notes that flowed out of it---

"Enjoying yourself there?"

It was a voice that suddenly -and rudely if Manabu may add- that had interrupted him. A foreign thing that had entered Manabu's serene little world. He turned around and saw his blond waiter with a smug smirk plastered on his lips whilst holding out a tray of his order.

Manabu would deny then and there, that his heart did not just skip a beat with how charming that smirk looked.

"Here's your order," Jin continued as he placed a plate of chicken sandwich with a side of salad and mashed potatoes, followed by a steaming hot cup of black coffee.

"Thanks chibi," Manabu replied.

And before Jin could fully set the cup of coffee at the raven's table, he looked down at Manabu with an arched brow and an expression saying it all that the comment was very much unwelcome.

"Oi, who the hell do you think you're calling _chibi?_ " the blond hissed out the last word in ire as he not so lightly placed the mug on Manabu's table.

He was worried for a second of his drink spilling.

Yet, the raven on the other hand was still taken a back by the strong reaction. He could see Jin's features quite clearly scrunching up in both irritation and frustration; he would taunt that the blond looked more constipated rather, than wanting to hit Manabu but, the raven wouldn't test on how controlled Jin's anger is.

Maybe...

"You?" Manabu replied back, seemingly testing the waters yet, his voice was already borderline mischievous "I don't see anyone else who can fit in the chibi description here."

He could see Jin grit his teeth "For your information," the waiter started, pointing his index finger at Manabu "I am not that short," he exasperated, willing his voice not to rise in anger "I am tall enough; you're not looking that far down."

Manabu should really stop his mouth from running but, he really can't... maybe he should think about putting a zipper at his lips for moments like this.

"Ah, what are you elementary? I guess if you're in that grade, you are tall." the raven smiled, hand manuevering to grab a hold of his coffee.

Yet, before Manabu could grasp on the handle of his mug; the steaming cup of caffeine was quickly taken away. Manabu gazed up at the blond waiter, he was slightly afraid that Jin may spill the coffee down on his face.

"You're an asshole, you know that? I'm in high school!" Jin said as he downed up Manabu's coffee; to which if the raven would comment was too _hot_ for anyone to swallow in one go.

As soon as Jin drank the coffee, he stopped and his features scrunched up to one of distaste and disgust as the blond stuck his tongue out. Manabu wondered whether it was out of disgust or because the beverage was way too hot for _anyone_ at all to finish in one go.

"I'm not paying for that anymore," Manabu said amused.

"How can you drink this? It's _awful._ " Jin replied, looking like a child whom had their first taste of bitter coffee.

"You could at least be a little more supportive of your own menu." Manabu retorted, looking as though he was surprised by Jin's words as a fain expression of innocence was plastered upon his features.

"I will never understand people's like for coffee." Jin said as he looked as though he still couldn't get rid of the caffeine's taste on his tongue. The blond waiter placed the mug back on the table and Manabu could see his body shudder a tad, probably from the coffee still.

"It's an acquired taste," the raven replied with a shrug of his shoulders "I wouldn't expect kids to have acquired it yet though, of course." he smirked smugly.

If Jin had twitched out of anger Manabu most definitely saw it and the raven should really be fearing for his life. Yet, he found it way too amusing to tease Jin to actually be rational and stop himself from being hated by the blond.

"You are the most _impossible_ customer ever--" he couldn't finish his words and Manabu himself was caught on a surprise as well.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?!" A raven haired man whom towered over Jin pinched at the blond's ear and pulled the waiter close to him "You're supposed to be _working_ not, _arguing with customers._ " the man whom Manabu noted, wore an apron and would obviously be working at the kitchen grasped at Jin's head instead then, forcibly bowed the younger in apology "I'm so sorry for the inconvenience Jin has caused you." he said.

"Kai-san, you're embarrassing me!" Jin hissed out to the other.

"It's alright, so far he hasn't beaten me up," Manabu replied politely "But, I think I'm going to need a new drink since Jin drank from mine." he pointed to the mug that apparently was already half empty.

Kai looked to Manabu in relief before his eyes went to the cup of coffee Manabu was pointing at and his smile turned into a scowl as he glared at Jin "You did what?" he said and Manabu swore he felt the venom in his voice.

The blond waiter's eyes widened like saucers, gulping in dread as Jin knew that he was doomed.

Kai turned to Manabu again and bowed his head low "I'm really very sorry for Jin. I'll have your drink replaced." the man continued off before he started to pull at Jin's arm whilst taking the mug of coffee along with them "I swear, if your brother didn't own this cafe you would be so _fired._ " the raven haired chef murmured scoldingly to Jin.

Manabu watched in amusement as Jin was whisked away by Kai, though he was worried at the same time. Manabu had just downright got Jin in trouble with someone who had that aura in him that _he was the boss_ of this establishment. He didn't know if he had fucked this one up on a very different level without noticing but, now the raven was starting to regret having teased Jin so much earlier.

He looked down on his food and took the sandwich to his hands. His stomach was grumbling and screaming out for food yes but, his head telling him to apologize to Jin because if the little blond got fired because of Manabu the raven would never _ever_ forgive himself. He inhaled deeply, taking one big bite out of his meal first to gain some strength.

As Manabu took the first bite of his sandwich, another waiter whom had silver hair had came to the raven's table and served him his new coffee.

"Ah, thank you." Manabu said to the man to which the silveret only nodded and started to walk away yet, he immediately called out his attention again "Hey ah," Manabu started, making the waiter turn back to him with an arched brow.

"Yes sir?" the silveret asked politely with a smile. If Manabu could remember clearly, Jin called this guy Ryoga.

"Is Jin gonna get in trouble?" He asked meekly, fingers fidgeting on his food "I mean, I didn't mean for him to get in trouble... Is gonna get fired?" he inquired rather scared, the expression all over his face.

The raven was expecting he other to get mad at him, to give Manabu a dirty look and to get insulted by the silveret under his breath. Yet, the reply he got from the other was something that Manabu was not expecting at all.

Ryoga chortled.

"You don't have to worry about Jin, there's no way of him getting kicked out of this cafe at all." he answered though, Ryoga warned "You might want to tone down on the height jokes though, he's really sensitive about those."


	5. Visit 03: The Parfait of my Dreams

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heeeeyy! So, I updated this one first cuz, I haven't been able to write Beyond the Pale's chapter 3 yet and since this one was almost finished anyways so yeah...
> 
> Anyways, warning for this is probably a more clear sight of depression and hints of self harm.
> 
> Also to be honest, I thought this was gonna be the shortest chapter but so far, I was wrong. It got to the minimum 6k so yeah, idk if this is gonna end u like Beyond the Pale since by chapter that fic's word count goes up and up. Anyways! I hope you guys enjoy this chapter!
> 
> To be honest, I actually had a hard time writing this for some odd reason lol. But luckily! It's summer vacation here sooo, I have more time to focus on my stories ouo
> 
> This is un-beta btw... Don't have anyone to proofread my fics for me anymore ;w;

Manabu couldn't believe his luck. The raven felt as though he was in a dream and he never _ever_ wanted to wake up again. In front of him was Kazuki, all smiles and cuteness as he looked at Manabu with those bright brown eyes of his that were so alluring and beautiful that he felt as though he might just fall into those deep depths and would be very happy to do so.

Manabu could stay like this forever.

"Manabu, ahh~" Kazuki said as he held in his hand a spoonful of parfait.The raven could literally see pretty little sparkles behind and around Kazuki as he held the spoon to Manabu; he looked to alluring, like an angel to Manabu's eyes and he still can't believe hi luck that this is actually, literally happening.

If he was dreaming, nobody dare pinch him or else Manabu would probably kill the person.

The raven grinned from ear to ear like a cheshire cat "ahh,"Manabu copied as he opened his mouth and in came the sweet sugary delight that the brunet had fed him. He heard Kazuki giggle and Manabu then and there knew that his heart could stop beating right this moment and he wouldn't complain at all.The raven could die a happy man now; there was nothing in this world that he would rather be at than, right here, right now with the person he loves.

Kazuki laughs "Manabu! You have parfait on your lips!"

He blinked a few times, unconsciously darting his tongue out to wipe away the evidences of sweets on him "Where? Is there more?" He chuckles, tongue swiping from his bottom to top lip.

The brunette takes upon another fits of little laughter "Mou, you're like a kid!" Kazuki grinned as he moved in closer to Manabu.

Manabu felt his cheeks burn hot, Kazuki was close to him. The proximity was too close for comfort yet, Manabu didn't mind-- _wouldn't_ mind at all anyways. The heat that radiated from Kazuki, it as warm and the raven himself was wishing the warmth itself was like a blanket he could cover himself up. Totally engulfed in the presence and aura that was uniquely Kazuki himself. The brunette had inched even closer, started to diminish the spaces between them until there was only so little of it, almost leaning to no space anymore. His breath caught up on his throat and Manabu was frozen in his place.

He felt the tip of the brunet's index finger lightly tap on the side of his lips, he felt the skin brush against his own flesh. The action light and leaving the raven begging more for Kazuki's physical contact.The finger easily swiped away the said parfait on him; Kazuki bringing his finger to his own mouth to lick then, suck at his finger.

Manabu gulped, Kazuki looked at him with innocent eyes, tip of his index still on his lips. Manabu felt like fainting right on his spot.

"What's wrong?" Kazuki asked this time as he seemed to have noticed the raven staring at him for a long period of time.

The raven could only clear his throat and avert his eyes away from Kazuki's own, feeling himself flush to deeper shades of red on his cheeks "I...You're just..." He took up the courage to say his words before softly mumbling "I love you..." Manabu felt as though his heart was beating a mile per minute; he wouldn't be surprised at all if it suddenly leaped out from his chest then, down to Kazuki's own lap from how much it was beating and seemed to be breaking through his rib cage.

It felt as though the raven was in a shoujo manga, was he really that in love with Kazuki or were those honest to god sparkles and illuminating little lights that danced around behind Kazuki making him look like he was a god given gift, or the chosen one or maybe even this was one of those scenes in shoujo mangas where the perfect lighting and such was given to the characters and to make the moment even more magical and romantic.

Did Kazuki see him in that way too? Were there currently sparkles and twinkles of light fluttering about around him? Manabu honestly wishes he looks normal or at least look half decent in these sparkles around them... Hopefully, his paleness doesn't look _too_ evident in them.

Chocolate brown eyes stared into Manabu's own purple contact lensed orbs as Kazuki leaned in closer and closer. He could almost feel the brunette's breath ghost against his, those soft alluring lips that just seemed to be calling out to touch against Manabu's seemed to be screaming and begging to be pressed against his. He gazed back to Kazuki, the other seemed to be waiting--just waiting for the raven to make the first move. Manabu gulped in his own saliva, blinking a few times in both uncertainty and want.

 _'This is it,'_ he muttered internally _'Kazuki's...'_

He decided to screw it, he'd been waiting so long for this and finally... _Finally_ ,. Manabu closes his eyes as well, wanting to savour and make the moment seem all the more magical, all the more romantic. Slowly, he inches in closer to the brunette, his lips readying themselves to press against Kazuki's own.

He leans in some more, Kazuki's seems to be much farther than, Manabu had initially anticipated. This was kinda frustrating him; his lips hadn't met Kazuki's yet... Had he somehow misjudged the distance between them? Manabu inches closer, moving further and further for the awaited kiss and yet he still hasn't met Kazuki's lips.

Manabu grows frustrated and he leans in and suddenly, it seemed all too fast when a short moment of falling was there and all of a sudden---

His face is collided with the cold hard ground.

"Aw! Fuck!" Manabu cursed loudly as he sat up from the floor and touched his lips. He felt the warmly smooth trail of blood leaking from his lips that were cut open. His nose and forehead hurt like a bitch and now, thanks to the pain the raven was having a splitting headache.

"Shit," he cursed again, looking to his hands to see finely painted cruor on his palms. Manabu grunts, one hand abruptly shoving away the blanket that had clung incessantly on his waist and standing up out of ire.The sudden action made Manabu feel even more dizzier, his sight spinning in front of him as everything from his furniture to the floor had started moving about in his eyes.

His legs wobbled, hand stretching out to grasp support on the walls. He closed his eyes for a few seconds, blinking a couple of times to try and wash away the little black dots and patches that he saw roaming around in his sight. Manabu looked to his side, seeing that he had accidentally tainted his walls with the red in his hands.

Another groan left the raven's lips, eyes rolling to the side in disbelief at himself "Great." he sarcastically said to himself.

Manabu then started walking his way to the bathroom. He stared at himself in the mirror, grimancing at the sight before him. He looked like a haggard mess as per usual, except for the split lip that was still bleeding a tad. Manabu examined himself, leaning in close as his eyes squinted at the wound. It wasn't anything too serious, it'll probably bruise later which will be hell to handle... he'd have difficulties eating later.

The raven washed his hands, fingers digging into his skin to to clean away the somewhat drying blood. He cupped the water in his palms then, raised them up to his lips. The water stung his wound, making Manabu wince at the sudden pain. Yet, he tried to shrug it off, fingers lightly caressing his lip to wipe away the traces of sanguine on them.A groan then, a sigh escaped from him as Manabu winced couple more time at the pain.

 _'Not enough pain,'_ was the sudden thought that crossed to his mind.

He was paralyzed for a moment, shocked by the sudden voice in his head. The raven blinked a few times, eyes wandering over to the mirror to watch himself as his index finger went back to poking at his wound.A small shudder crawled up from his spine, making his body quake at the sudden rush of pain. Manabu turned his gaze to the side, unable to watch himself do the same thing over and over again. He wanted to bite his lips, or maybe to poke at his wound more and maybe peel off some of the skin on his lips.

The staring he had done finally grabbed him back to reality as Manabu's eyes widened and he quickly shook off all the bad vibes his head was trying to tell him.

"Pull yourself together!"He scolded himself, looking down on the sink as his hands gripped tight on the edge of the bathroom sink.His breathing was ragged and he panted in exhaustion; the raven felt as though he had been running for miles even when he had really only woke up from sleep. Manabu gritted his teeth in anger, hands balling into a fist as his own ire was directed to no one other than, himself.

He shook his head again, looking up to his own reflection as Manabu pointed an index finger to himself "We talked about this," Manabu scolded, glaring at himself at the mirror "Get your shit together man."

"Yes yes, I know. It's just--"

"Hm! Manabu!" He cut himself off with a look.

The raven then gave himself a firm nod as Manabu directed himself to the shower.

Peeling off his clothes, Manabu turned on the shower, setting the temperature a little above normal heat as he still needed to wake himself up. Although, if he were to be truly honest he just needed to get those bad thoughts away from him again. A soft sigh left his lips, his body trembling under the harsh paps of water.He shook his head, hurrying up in getting himself clean as Manabu organized his thoughts for the day.

 _'Park, need to get to Kousaku Park asap.'_ he listed internally whilst washing his hair _'Don't forget to bring your book and glasses this time.'_ Manabu added off again as he washed his body with soap then, proceeded to rinse all of it off.

 _'Ah, which book should I bring?'_ the raven asked himself, coming to a halt _'Murakami-san's IQ 40? Or maybe Lily Franky's Tokyo Tower?'_ he had a hard time choosing, those were two books he had bought last month and hadn't had a chance to read as of yet when--

"Ah! Banana Yoshimoto's Goodbye Tsugumi."he said in sudden realization and a grin spread across Manabu's lips. It was one of the romance books their librarian back at school had suggested to him and Manabu had totally forgotten about the said book. He had bought it somewhere around 3 months ago and is now probably buried somewhere in his pile of books... Though, if Manabu remembers specifically-- _if his memory isn't betraying him_ _then_ "It should be at my study desk." he whispered to himself before he turned off the water shower and walked out of the bathroom.

Manabu made sure to properly dry himself off, getting himself clothes first before heading to his desk. His precious books were far more treasured for him to just randomly hold, so he needs to make sure that he's dry to avoid getting his valuables ruined.

"Goodbye, goodbye." the raven muttered as he held in his hands book after book trying to find the one he wanted to start reading for this week.

"There you are!" he exclaimed with a beaming smile as Manabu stared at book in his hands. He had bought a hardbound copy of the said book; it being the only copy he could find at that time.Not that the raven was complaining about the amount he had spent on it anyways "Now, for my glasses." he said to himself, so he wouldn't forget anything, saying word per word the list in his head. Manabu put on his glasses, grabbed his wallet, phone,earphones, house keys and was out of his apartment in an instant.

It was an easy walk to the park as usual. Summer was when people normally went out with their family and friends to go to beaches and such but, Manabu had been coped up inside his apartment. Reading his precious books, playing guitar and going on strolls in his favourite park. Manabu couldn't think of an even better way to spend his summer than, what he was currently doing at the moment.

The fresh air that hit him as soon as the raven had entered the park was heavenly. He adored the way the greeneries always seemed to be inviting him, alluring the raven to always visit them as Manabu would spend hours upon hours just wasting his time relaxing at Kousaku Park. He doesn't regret ever wasting away his time at his favourite place because for the most part, Manabu can't say what he's doing is time wasting when it helps me come back to his own senses. He decided to venture once more into the area, retracing his steps on familiar grounds as Manabu walked the same pathways he had come to love. He could walk around the park with his eyes closed from the amount of time the raven had spent on the place. Manabu would very much like to move his place to the park if he could; he wouldn't mind living in the area at all.

Once the raven had finished his little stroll along the park... And by little, that means Manabu had spent the better 1 and half hour of his morning just walking around the said place.He decided to finally take a rest at one of the benches and read his book in peace... That is, his original plan until his stomach started growling.

"Eh..." was the first word to escape Manabu's lips before "Don't tell me I forgot to eat breakfast again?"he asked himself, eyes closing for a moment as he retrieved his memories from earlier and "Shit, I did forget." the raven said with a sigh of defeat, head lowering in dismay. "I really need to take better care of myself." he mumbled out, one hand massaging his forehead. _'But, I really don't want to leave the park just to get some breakfast--'_ and in that instant thought, Manabu's head shot up at sudden realization "Sujin Cafe." he told himself before a wide grin placed itself upon the raven's lips.

Though, Manabu did have to wince in pain at his smile. The wound he had acquired earlier today had been forgotten but, smiling that widely was a sure way to remind Manabu of how much of an idiot he is. He needs to stop smiling for today... Not that, that'd be much of a chore to do.

"Heh, can't believe I'm this thankful for that cafe opening here," he continues to talk to himself, taking the familiar route of walking to the cafe.

By this time around, the raven had somewhat memorized his way to the cafe. Sure on the first time, he had wandered around aimlessly in search of the said paid place. Getting frustrated at himself because how on earth can he not find a small little restaurant located in the one area that Manabu has been to everyday? The mere idea of that happening still bugs Manabu at the back of his head, leaving him to wonder how the hell something like that could happen.

He took one turn on the path, a left then straight a head to where he could now see an outline of Sujin Cafe.He already started brainstorming on what he should order "Definitely parfait," were the words that came out from his lips. _'Hopefully, they have those.'_ he continued off in his thoughts. Manabu does remember if his mind isn't playing tricks on him that the cafe did offer parfait at their menu. But, the idea of having parfait brought about another question and problem to Manabu's current predicament.

 _'Will parfait even go great with coffee?'_ the sudden query brought a scowl to scrunch up to the raven's face.He hadn't been much of a sweet tooth to be honest; if Manabu were to be honest he'd say the waiter back at the cafe would be the one who could chug down sweets like a champ.The raven prefers his hot bitter cups of coffee accompanied by the usual meals... Though, usual meals in the cafe are things like croissant and pasta; and that would be deemed unusual for Manabu since his usual meals consist of rice.

He entered the carefully designed double doors of the cafe, a not so happy look on his face as the raven was contemplating is whether he really should have parfait with the cost of not getting his bitter cup of coffee.

Manabu scanned the area around, there were a lot more people than, usual. Manabu really didn't mind them that much, except for the fact that there was a dirty disgustingly sweet and goey affectionate couple sitting on _his territory--_ place... No table.

A soft sigh escaped the raven's lips, eyes rolling as he looked to the table behind the couple. It was still near the window and Manabu would still be able to catch a glimpse of the sceneries outside. The only downside to it would be that the raven would be sitting close to a couple that had no shame and is proudly showing off too much PDA for anyone's liking at all. He screwed it, nothing Manabu can do but to endure the suffering of this couple and just sit... With his back to them so he doesn't have to see all the disgusting things they're doing.

He waits for a waiter to assist him; opening his book in the meantime to start his reading whilst waiting for a waiter. Manabu skeptically flipped through the pages, noting it piece by piece before he briefly came upon a bookmark at the near middle of the book. A brow arched up in curiosity, had he read this book before? Manabu doesn't recall ever starting Goodbye Tsugumi yet, but there's one of his favourite bookmarks right there. And if the raven remembers clearly, he's been looking for this bookmark for _months._

"Oi, back so soon?" A familiar voice breaks through his train thoughts as Manabu looks up to see Jin staring at him haughtily; one hand on his hip whilst the other held onto a menu "What happened to your face?" his features suddenly changed to one of worry as he leaned in close.

"Excuse me?" Manabu asks offended.

Jin points to his own lips repeatedly as a message, making Manabu realize that what Jin was referring to was his new found injury "Did you get into a fight?"

"No, why do you ask?" Manabu replies back with an inquiry.

"Because you have a large bruise on your lip not to mention a cut. Are you alright?" the blond waiter asks in concern.

Manabu could only shrug his shoulders at Jin's questions "Nothing to get worked up about, I just fell from bed while I was sleeping." he explained off.

"Wow, that sounds like such a lie." Jin countered back but, let the topic slide anyways as he placed the menu on the table "What'll you be having this time?"

The raven didn't know if he should feel offended by Jin's statement. Did he look like someone who would get into a fight? Manabu couldn't even remember the last time he had been in a physical fight--alright, just this school year he did get into some trouble but, the raven is not some dangerous wild animal that randomly looks to trouble. Manabu takes the menu and scans the food that are offered in the cafe; though he briefly checks the dessert part of it first.

His eyes widen in surprise "Coffee flavoured parfait?" Manabu says as he looks up to Jin as soon as the words leave him.

"Alright, coffee flavoured parfait." Jin echoes back as he writes it off on his pad "And?"

"I didn't even know you guys served that here," the raven admits happily, a grin forming on his lips though, as soon as he attempts to do so, his injury forbid him by a stinging pain "Aw," Manabu mouths above a whisper.

"You must've really pissed that guy off to give you a cut on the lip huh?" Jin says as a matter of fact.

Manabu sighs "I told you, I just fell off the bed."he replies back, not amused by how Jin is assuming he's lying.

"I believe you, I believe you." the blond waiter retorts, both hands raising up in what seemed like defeat "So, anything else you wanna order?"

"Well, black coffee as usual and --"

"Ugh, seriously? I don't know why you like that bitter tasting caffeine. You already have sweets too, not too mention parfait and hot beverage?" Jin whines out, one brow arching up in question to the raven haired customer.

"Can I please finish my order chibi?"Manabu asks in a teasing tone to the other.

Jin rolls his eyes in irritation "Fine, whatever."

"Thank you." Manabu replies off as he checks the menu one more time before saying "Chicken Alfredo pasta please. That's all." he continued off before giving the menu back to Jin.

"Alright, so that's one coffee flavoured parfait and chicken Alfredo pasta right?" the blond waiter repeats Manabu's order.

"And don't forget the black coffee." Manabu reminds.

"Yes sir, won't forget your _precious_ _black coffee._ " Jin replies back, tongue darting out in disgust at Manabu's choice of beverage as the raven just laughs off Jin's remark.

"Okay I'm good."

"Be back with your order in less than, 10 minutes."The waiter said lastly before he was shooed off by Manabu.

The raven watched Jin go, cleaning up a few tables on his way before entering the kitchen area of the cafe. Manabu sighed, eyes gazing at the window beside him and _trying_ to enjoy the view from the park outside if it wasn't for the _lovey-dovey couple_ behind him that were too _disgustingly sweet_ with each other _in public._ The raven sighed for the nth time today, he was losing track of the times he would sigh in just one day. He'd probably drop down dead one of these days from the amount of sighing he does.

Is there a limit to how much a person should sigh a day? Manabu should look into that.

Manabu rummages one hand into the pocket of his pants, feeling in his phone and a tangle of wires in them. He pulls out both items, placing his phone on the table whilst he tries to unknot his earphones. He grumbles at the nuisance of having wired earphones.

 _'Note to self, buy bluetooth headset next time.'_ he muses.

Once the wires have been untangled, he plugged his earphones to his phone and ears then, started searching for good music to listen to. "Luna Sea maybe?" he inquired in a soft tone of voice as Manabu scanned through his song list "But, not too rock-ish." he mumbled out again before finding the perfect song, Gravity.

Manabu smiled in delight, shucking his phone to the side as his hands took hold of the book he bought with him today. He started from the start at first, obviously skipping the foreword for the first chapter. It was a first person point of view with the speaker being Maria, Tsugumi's cousin. The raven scans the the few pages of the first chapter and surprisingly, he starts to remember the story quite vividly now. He checks the other chapters, peeking through them and his booked marked page repeatedly. His memory is pretty much telling him that he can skip rereading all of these chapters and go on with where he last left off.

He flips off to his original chapter, a part wherein Tsugumi and Kyoichi are together in the woods having a date. Manabu happily reads off the chapter, the two lovers talking about their childhood and their dreams in life, the future that they'll conquer together and how Tsugumi is happy, hope nestling in her that one day she'll beat her illness.

Yet, Manabu only gets to read a few paragraphs of the book since his food arrived quickly.

"Sorry for the wait!" Jin apologizes to the raven as he sets Manabu's orders on the table.

Manabu takes off his earphones, pauses his repeated song and puts his materials off to the side for a moment "You didn't take that long though," Manabu counters.

"That's because you're busy reading this."Jin replies back, one finger pointing to Manabu's book before he finishes off placing his customer's meal.

"Well, aren't you happy that I'm being a good quiet customer for once?" The raven tells as he strains his smile t a small one, not wanting to experience another painful reminder from his lip on how he fell down from bed earlier this morning.

"I guess I do like you better when you're quiet." Jin retorts with a grin as he seats down to the vacant chair in front of Manabu.

The action makes the raven quirk up one inquisitive brow. He was in the process of putting his earphones back after Jin had was finished giving him his food but, the younger sitting at his chair and looking as though he was waiting for something made some unnerving feelings erupt from Manabu. Jin was acting weird today... Shouldn't the blond waiter be mad at him and playing not-so playful banters with Manabu, not smiling and looking at the raven like he was anticipating something? Jin is totally acting weird today.

"Uhm... Jin?" Manabu started with caution.

"Hm?" was the waiter's reply.

"Aren't you supposed to be working?"

"Oh, I'm on break."

Jin answer proved to be more confusing than, ever. The puzzled look on Manabu's features are more evident than earlier, the raven staring at Jin with oddness and queer to his actions.

"Alright, did you hit your head or something?"

"Why are you asking me if I hit my head? Shouldn't _I_ be the one asking you that?"

"Why would you even ask me if I hit my head?"

The blond waiter's laugh was confusing, Manabu has for sure concluded that this day was weird.

"Look at your face! You obviously got into a fight! You look like shit!" Jin explained off.

Manabu winced at the other's choice of words "How many times do I have to tell you that I did not get into a fight?" Manabu sighed wearily.

Jin could only lean back and cross his arms against his chest "Why are you being so secretive all of a sudden?" Jin asked before he leaned in close, hands resting on the table and his eyes glinted in both mischief and interest "Are you some sort of delinquent?!"

"Aw!" And all of a sudden, Jin was smacked in the head by Ryoga.

"Quit being rude to our customers!" the silveret scolded before bowing to Manabu "Please excuse Jin." he said before sending a glare to the other waiter.

"Ryoga-chan can be so mean sometimes." Jin says with a pout.

"And you're being weird. Why are you suddenly making conversations with me? I thought you..." Manabu was trying to be honest here, he glanced from left to right at first, then to Jin as if he was trying to decipher the emotions featured in the blond waiter's face before he sighed and said "hated me?" Manabu said reluctantly.

"Hate is such a strong word," Jin answered "I prefer annoyed." he nods.

"Wow, that make me feel at least a bit better." Manabu answers sarcastically.

"Also, Kai-san said if you ever come back here, which he scolded me for _hours_ saying you might not come back. That I should apologize properly if I see you again." the waiter explains off, finally getting rid of that curious nagging voice at the back of Manabu's head screaming how weird Jin was being today.

So, the blond was only being forced to hang out with Manabu today. Great.

"Well, apology accepted. I was being mean to you first anyways." Manabu said as he started to eat his pasta.

"And!" Jin suddenly said, catching Manabu's attention again "Can't you tell me what happened to your fight?" He asked innocently, giving off cute puppy dog eyes and Manabu swears, anyone would have probably fallen to that trap and told the truth.

Sucks to be Jin though, Manabu's been telling the truth from the start.

"I told you, I fell of the bed." the raven said before sipping at his coffee.

"Why are you so stubborn on not telling me!" Jin grumbles for a second before his face lights up immediately with an idea and Manabu is feeling rather scared of the way the blond's mood and ideas suddenly change "Let's do Quid Pro Quo then!"

Manabu looks at Jin in question "Quid Pro Quo?"

"Yeah! It's like a game where you answer a question to get--"

"I know what Quid Pro Quo is, I'm just surprised you even know that word." Manabu smirks.

"Hey! I may not look like it," Jin says before trying to pose and arrange his hair like a cool kid "But, I'm actually very smart."

"Don't look like one though," the raven chuckles.

"Just shut up and play with me."

"Alright, alright." Manabu chuckles, taking a bite from his pasta first as he thought of which question to ask first.He already knows that the blond is an incoming first year so "Which school are you entering for high school?"

"Not sure yet but, Seikoku High School is catching my attention." Jin answers non-chalantly and Manabu hums in reply, trying to multi-task in eating whilst playing with Jin.

"My turn, what happened to your face?" Jin asked giddily, leaning in close to Manabu.

"I fell off my bed." Manabu answered quickly, not even looking up at to Jin before saying "Your age?"he says then, continues eating.

"Why are you so stubborn and still lying? Don't you even know how to play this game?" Jin exasperates before sighing and answering "fifteen, turning sixteen this year though. And--"

"I can be stubborn sometimes but, I'm not lying. Birthday?" Manabu said, not letting Jin finish his sentence as he smiled up at the blond.

"Hey no fair! That wasn't my question!"

"Question is a question now, Quid Pro Quo."

Jin groans rather loudly, quite like a child before he answers "July 22. Now, why is an annoying guy like you continually visiting our cafe?"

"Wow, rude Jin." Manabu laughs "I'm at this park everyday because I love it here. It just so happens that I forget to eat breakfast a lot so, I have no choice but to eat here often." He says with a smile before asking "What's your height?"

"Oi! Are you trying to insult me here?" Jin was quick to go defensive, almost growling at Manabu.

"Ah, so you're really that sensitive about your height." The raven states as a matter of fact with an amused chuckle.

"Quit making fun of me you delinquent!"

Manabu eats a few fork full of his pasta before saying"How many times should I tell you I'm no delinquent? I can't believe an annoying squirt like you might enter into my school,"he continues off with a fake weary sigh "Good-bye peaceful high school life, it was fun while it lasted."he smiled teasingly at the blond.

"Who you calling squirt you bully! How about you? You're paler than, a dead person!" Jin exasperates with a hiss.

"Oh, I recall being called that a lot of times." he only nods in agreement before taking another sip from his coffee "But, at least I'm not as short and clumsy as you Jin-chan." Manabu adds off before finishing his pasta.

Jin groans in defeat, hands raising up as though he was surrendering "You are impossible," the blond waiter says as he catches Manabu laughing at him "You're actually having fun are you? Tsk, you'd probably even be happy if I go there so you have someone to bully." Jin says with a pout.

"Like I said, why would I be happy seeing a blond munchkin roaming around my school's halls?" The raven chortles "Also, call me senpai. You rude kouhai."

"Like, I'll be calling some like you--"

"By the way, can you serve my parfait now?" Manabu cuts Jin off.

It seemed as though Jin wasn't phased by Manabu's sudden request, his eyes seemed to light up. Those caramel brown eyes that are obviously contact lenses had that glint of light in them that showed how happy Jin was with Manabu's request. How the waiter was able to radiate that kind of effect from his features was a total mystery to the raven but, he wouldn't mind seeing it over and over again... He wouldn't admit it vocally but, Jin was rather adorable.

"Gimme a sec!" And in a flash, Jin was out of his sight and running to the kitchen to get Manabu's order.

It only took a second for Jin to come back to Manabu, setting the raven's parfait in front of him as Jin seated himself back in front of Manabu. Jin watched with hopeful eyes, a wide smile on his lips as his chin rested on top of two palms, the blond's elbows sitting on the table.

For some odd reason, Manabu is weirdly reminded of something. This scene happening in front of him right now felt like Deja vu, did this happen to him already? Why did the raven vaguely feel like this had happened to him somewhere... Like in a dream--

Oh yeah, dream with Kazuki and parfait.

He was starting to feel a little bitter when, Jin snapped him out of his dark trance.

"Oi! Hurry up and eat your parfait! I wanna see your reaction." the blond said impatiently, body moving about like a child who couldn't stay put on his seat.

Manabu gazed at the other at first, curious as to why Jin loved to see his first reactions to eating sweets. He shrugged off the idea, taking a spoonful of his coffee parfait and---

The taste is simply amazing. It was bitter like coffee yet, Manabu could taste the mixture of sugar in it. The parfait was creamy that seemed to melt in his tongue, flavours molding onto each other to create a different kind of flavour, something tangly sweet with milk that blended in perfectly with the coffee.

It even has a great aftertaste that's somewhat similar to a caramel creamer?

"Oh, it's good." Manabu says with a smile, not caring if his lip stings from it.

"Really?!" Jin replies back excitedly, making Manabu's heart skip a beat for a second.

"Yeah? What're you so excited about?"

Jin bit on his lower lip, a somewhat shy demeanor suddenly evident in his aura as the blond fidgeted in his seat and smiled at Manabu "I made that coffee parfait, we just recently added it on the menu. You're the first one to order it... I'm glad you liked it."

Manabu couldn't quite pin point properly how he felt, but it was a mixture of invigorating and happiness and something else that made Manabu nervous and somewhat sweaty like he couldn't stay put on his seat yet, at the same time he can't move. That smile on Jin had to be the most adorable smile he'd seen and Manabu will admit -just to himself of course-, that his cheeks really did blush into a light tint of pink at the sight of Jin.


	6. Visit 04: The Boys Who Cry Over Cherry Short Cakes

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heeeyyyy!! idk what to say cuz, I'm usually speechless at notes?? Not unless I finished a fic and at the same time posted it then and there lol
> 
> Oh! But, this was beta by my lil sis and I'm really grateful to her for this <3
> 
> Tbh, idk if Cherry Short Cakes actually exist but, I'm not really a big fan of strawberries (since they can't compare to the sweetness of cherries) so, I instead changed it ouo Like seriously you guys! Cherries are so underappreciated! They're soooo sweet! My favourite fruit in the whole wide world ~
> 
> And oh! The book that Manabu is reading in this fic is real. The Chinese Cinderella by Adeline Yen Mah is definitely one of my most favourite books ever ~ I tote recommend reading it guys! I know Manabu said in interviews that he loves reading romance stories but, I'm not really a romance type of person so yeah. So, the books he may read may not be romance always lol

 

                                                                                      **I** t wasn't that he was crying; Manabu most definitely did not cry... But, maybe this time was an exception. He started out good for the day. He didn't forget to eat his breakfast for once and Manabu didn't have any weird or depressing dreams as well in the first place. He woke up, got up then smiled for once as he hit the showers, ate breakfast and came back to his most favourite place in the world: Kousaku Park.

But now, it seems as though his happiness from earlier today needed payment. So now, Manabu is a wallowing, grossly sobbing idiot in the park.

But, perhaps he should explain first as to why exactly he was crying in the first place.

It all started when he decided to read this new book of his. He knew the story of Chinese Cinderella by Adeline Yen Mah would be a heart breaker but, Manabu was a fool to actually read it somewhere outside.He should have known better and just finished the book at his apartment instead.Yet, it felt as though that today was such a good day and nothing could ruin it for him. For once, Manabu felt as though that the weather outside felt nice and that he wanted the sun to touch his pale skin that normally hated the light's rays.Manabu felt strong and invincible for a split second.

Oh, how foolish he was.

His nose started to get a little runny when it came to the sixth chapter of the book. Each chapter was rather short and concise, considering the width of the book it wasn't something that needed days or even a full day in Manabu's case. He was a rather fast reader, no matter how much he savours and enjoys every paragraph and sentence down to the last letter, he always seemed to be able to finish reading in a short amount of time.

So, back to chapter six of Chinese Cinderella. It was entitled _'First Day of School'_ , wherein the heroine little 5 year old Adeline or her Chinese name to be exact Jun-ling, was attending school for the first time since she moved to Shanghai.

Manabu always did have a soft spot and even though he wasn't that close to children he simply cannot take the amount of abuse this author had gone through in her life. His nose sniffled and he took out a handkerchief from his pocket. Adeline was 5 yet, everyone seemed to forget about her whole existence completely. Nobody from her family seemed to care about her enough to remember that she needed to go to school and their kitchen boy, was the one who very much reluctantly gave her a ride to school. The man probably wouldn't have even given her a lift to school if she wasn't only the verge of tears as the author had wrote in her book.

And if that wasn't bad enough, nobody came to pick her up from school as well. He had to read about a little girl walking on the sidewalks desperately trying to find her way back home. When he read about Adeline walking on the streets cold, alone and afraid he had to stop reading for a moment for Manabu already felt tears prickling the side of his eyes that are dangerously close to falling.

He saw a few passerbies's glancing at his direction, even caught one that snickered and whispered something to their companion as they walked past the raven.

Manabu sighed; reading at the park's benches by the pathway is not a good spot right now. No matter how good the weather is today; there wasn't a light of heated sun rays in sight as the clouds blocked them and the wind was in perfect sync with it. It felt as though summer for once was leaning a little more closer to spring and Manabu was overjoyed at that fact for once.

If it wasn't for the book he was reading.

Such heart-clenching, spirit crushing and hopes in tragedy this story was.

He moved from his seat, walking a little in the park to cool off the wave of emotions. It wasn't that Manabu experienced the same kind of abuse Adeline had endured. His condition was very far from what she had encountered. It wasn't the ignorance and mistreatment, Manabu was very well loved by his parents, spoiled to the brim since he's the youngest. Even his elder brother loved him very much that they got along so well that Manabu even cried when said brother went out of the country to continue his studies in Europe.

So no, Manabu did not know even an inch of how hard Adeline's life was. Yet, he sympathized with her deeply and ached with her pain as well. Readers usually gain more empathy and such by all the stories they read but, it wasn't that new found skill in reading that had struck to him.

It was her loneliness, her sadness. The feeling of you against the world and no matter how hard you strived and struggled against it all; you will never succeed.

Though, of course it was too early to say that at the sixth chapter of the book but, Manabu felt so close to her there. Like, if he and the author were to meet, he knew that they would bond in this loneliness. This isolation and depression and yearning to be loved.

He was being selfish. The youngest of a well above middle class family with loving parents and an elder brother that spoiled him and yet, he yearns to be loved.

And silly it is too, that he himself was the one that moved away from his parent's in an attempt to become more independent and be with himself more. He had isolated himself more and came to a new city that was slightly far from everything he knew and grew up with.

Manabu truly is an odd person.

But, that was him. No matter how confusing and complicated as it may seem.

Visiting the park on a daily basis did have its perks. Like, being able to memorize every square inch of the beautiful place. Manabu could walk around the area blindfolded and he'd still know where to go; and so, it wasn't that hard for the raven to find a secluded spot that was isolated and away from people, not to mention a good reading place as well.

He sat down on the grass; a smile gracing his lips as he did so. Manabu took his time in feeling the soft Earth below him, maybe he should have brought a clothe or something to sit on. It would probably be a chore to clean his pants if the dirt dug deep into the fabric. Fingers softly caressed the little blades of soft green grass below him. It was calming in its own way, the nature around him, blue skies above and a whispering of the wind that made the tree leaves rustle.

He was in peace.

Manabu sat himself comfortably on the ground, making sure his precious book wasn't anywhere near the dirt below him. He would never forgive himself for ruining his treasures.

It wasn't hard for Manabu to get back into the zone, to have a feel of the book as though he were the main character or a character itself inside the story he read. An autobiography it was yes, but Manabu was this watcher that was part of the story but, at the same time not entirely a real person whom was in the story.

Confusing again was he, but it felt like that.

The feel of the book in his hands and as he felt that smooth texture of the paper with every turn of the page, Manabu felt more and more engulfed with the story he read. It made his heart clench and his throat dry as water started to spawn themselves back into his eyes. Although he may want to deny it at times, Manabu was a very sensitive person. His empathy was a little too much on a level that wasn't quite normal in his own opinion. He sometimes felt other's pain as though it was his own; their problems become his problem as well.

And as he read on the story of Adeline, he couldn't help but sympathize and think for a moment. Adeline was rather close to her Aunt and Grandfather, Auntie Baba and Ye Ye as she called them. It made Manabu ponder for a moment on his still living grandparents. Oh, has Manabu ever showed much affection to his grandparents? The raven can't even remember the last time he had visited them on his own accord!

So many thoughts ran about in his head as he read on, things he had yet to ponder on about again and again as he continued on his journey in his book. His hands started to shake out of both anger and sadness. He couldn't stop the tears that were falling from his cheeks no matter how much he wanted them to stop. There was a bit of snot that escaped from his nose but, Manabu brought out a handkerchief to at least make himself a little bit clean.

_'Would be a disaster to get my book dirty.'_

He was in chapter 10 now, with Adeline talking about how she met her bestfriend Chun-mei. The popular girl whom excelled in both sports and academic at their school Sheng Xin. This was the start of turmoil as Manabu couldn't help his clenching heart as he read on, salty tears ceaselessly streaming down his cheeks as he read about the part where it was raining hard and heavy, a storm on their way and poor Adeline whom was only 5 or 7 at that time had to walk home on her own, but luckily Chun-mei and her father helped her and gave her a ride home no matter how much she insisted against it--

"What the fuck? Why are you crying?"

Ah, Manabu's little world had been shattered when Jin came into.

The raven looked up from his book, his eyes probably red and puffy as he stared at Jin. The blond-headed waiter looked at him in both worry and confusion.

Jin walked close to Manabu, crouching down in front of him as he asked "Are you alright?" he asked purely out of goodwill.

Manabu couldn't stop his tears from falling even when he wanted to... And he desperately wanted to stop crying because Jin was in front of him and this was such an embarrassing moment. Jin would never let him live this down and this would make him think so lowly of his senpai now. But, Manabu shook his head no, indicating that yes, he wasn't alright at all. Manabu is currently a bawling mess because of this book and he can't even explain it verbally yet, as he fears that he may stutter and Jin may not understand what the hell he's babbling about at all.

"What's wrong?" Jin asks.

"This." Manabu answers in a hoarse voice as he shows his book Chinese Cinderella to Jin "This is too fucking sad." He admits with so much hatred and love and confusion.

As he had said earlier, this book is giving him love-hate feelings.

Jin can only arch his brow and look at Manabu with an expression full of puzzlement "You're kidding me right?" Jin inquires, thinking that Manabu may be bluffing on the real reason as to why he's crying.

Manabu shakes his head again, scooting close to Jin so they sat side by side "I'm fucking serious, this shit will _destroy_ your heart." He continues off, showing Jin the current page he's reading. Where Adeline is being helped by Chun-mei and her father to get a ride home from the horrible weather where even the roads were pooling with water that may as well drown the heroine sooner of later.

"Please tell me you're kidding just like the other day when you were obviously caught in a fight. Because I really can't believe you anymore." Jin says in all seriousness, looking straight to Manabu.

"Why the fuck would I even lie to you about this?" Manabu answers with a swear, hissing out the last word in his sentence.

Manabu's reaction caught Jin off guard; he hadn't expected Manabu to feel that deeply about a book... Especially one that looked as though it was a chick flick story.

"Okay..." Jin was at a loss for what to say at the situation.

"Here, I'll read it for you. You _have_ to experience this pain!" Manabu said.

"What? No way! I'm not listening to your chick flick--"

"Your senpai orders you to." Manabu says sternly before a sudden realization hits him "Wait, are you supposed to be working right now?" The raven asks, grabbing his handkerchief so he could wipe his nose.

Jin shakes his head to the other "Not really, I have a day off today. Decided to come to the park anyways since I have nothing better to do but... I seriously did not expect to find you at some isolated part of the park crying your eyes out." Jin says in all honesty, looking at Manabu up to down as though he was assessing something. Trying to figure out if the raven was still messing with him and would probably laugh at Jin afterwards for believing in Manabu's teasing act "Please tell me this is a joke."

The raven sighs "I told you, this book is seriously messed up!" Manabu exasperates "I'll read out loud a couple of chapters so you can understand my pain."

The blond waiter groans, eyes rolling to the side as though he had been forcibly sat there by Manabu to listen to some boring story "Fine, but the moment it gets boring I'm leaving you here." Jin says as he scoots close to Manabu so he can read the words Manabu would be saying. And to be honest, Jin does prefer it sometimes for other people to read things for him instead. Especially if said thing is something very far from Jin's point of interest. He doesn't even know for sure how Manabu tangled him up here to get him to read some book about... What is this book exactly?

"What're they Chinese? What's the main character's name?" Jin asks, rudely interrupting Manabu's reading.

A sigh escaped the raven's lips "Yes, this is Chinese. The main character is Adeline--"

"Wow, that's a pretty Western name."Jin cuts Manabu off rudely again.

Or rudely in Manabu's opinion anyways.

" _Adeline_ is her Western name given to her by her _parents._ _Jun-Ling_ is her Chinese name."Manabu explains off with a hiss, getting thoroughly irritated by Jin's lack of manners. Didn't his parents ever taught him not to speak so rudely when other people were talking? Sheesh, the nerve of some people. And by people, Manabu mostly meant Jin as of this moment.

"Alrighty then, please continue." Jin said politely this time with a cute little smile adorning his lips.

It wasn't fair in Manabu's case, because that smile just seemed to melt away the earlier anger and offense he felt against Jin. Oh well, holding onto grudges as he read a thousand times already was never good anyways. So onward with the loud reading Manabu did for both him and Jin.

When the raven had started to continue from where he left off, he felt that uninterested vibe from Jin. Judging from the way he moved and fidgeted about, fingers lightly playing with the grass below him as Jin would only glance about from time to time every at Manabu's book. Though, what was even more irritating was the way Jin would ask things out of the blue.

"Woah wait, so this was in World War II?" The blond asks all of a sudden.

"Yeah, I just read it earlier. We're in 1945--no, 1946 here in this book."Manabu explains.

Jin gives off a little shiver "Yeesh! Isn't that the year of the Hiroshima bombing?" He says as he hugs himself and fakes another shiver "Scary!"

"Bombing was in 1945," Manabu adds off "I'm surprised you know some of our history."

"Seriously, how stupid do I look to you?" Jin asks.

"Well, you're a blond."

"Not naturally!" Jin quickly retorts in his defense "That's so racist dude!"

Manabu chuckles "I didn't say anything."

"But you were implying that." Jin points out.

"Can we please just get back to the story?" Manabu sighs, feeling as though the mood had totally been broken all thanks to Jin.

The blond waiter makes a wave of his hand, indicating for Manabu to continue "Sure sure, whatever." He says as Jin relaxes comfortably on the ground, lying down as his left arm supports his head.

Manabu rolls his eyes at the sight, continuing on with his book. If he could, he really wanted to just block Jin out of his little world. Maybe even _kindly_ ask him to leave Manabu alone but, the raven was adamant on making the blond realize that the book he was reading was _torture._ Or just a really heart-clenching, breaking story that will leave you breathless and aching. Manabu doesn't want to shoo the blond off then, be called a liar by Jin again because he was crying about something else and that what he was really reading was nothing more than, just some lame old chick flick story from the 1940's.

Pfft, yeah right. Fat chance that Manabu will let Jin go with the assumption that he's a liar.

And FYI to Jin, the chick flick stories Manabu reads are beautiful and meaningful.

Manabu continues back to his story, not entirely sure if the blond was listening to him or not. The raven is just trying to get back into the mood. His mood of utterly sympathizing Adeline and trying to connect with her obstacle filled life. He wants to read about her sadness, her challenges and how she overcomes them on her own or even with some help from other people. Manabu wants to be able to reconnect and feel as though he's one with the story he's reading.

Yet, it seems as though the brat he's with won't let him.

Manabu's still in the same chapter he was when Jin found him, reading disturbed more than, a few times Manabu would be alright with. And the count of him being alright with his reading being disturbed is 0.

"Wait no way? Her brothers did that? That's so cruel!" Jin comments off quickly as he sat back up and leaned in close to Manabu; reading for himself the scenario Manabu had just read himself for them.

"I told you this is horrible." Manabu replied back, stealing a quick glance to Jin before he adds off "I've never heard of any elder sibling pissing on a juice then, making their younger drink it. It's disgusting." He continues with his face scrunching up in total disgust at the scene they're reading.

"Is this true to life?" Jin inquires this time.

"Sometimes, I really question if you have a stupidity button on your brain that you just decide to click on and off at different times." Manabu blurts out and immediately realizes that what he had said may have been a little too out of line. And he regrets it even more once he sees Jin reaction to his words.

Jin tsk's at him, clearly offended by the raven's words as he crosses his arms against his chest "Fuck you too. I was only asking." He grumbles off, looking away from Manabu.

Manabu sighs, scratching the back of his head. He hadn't meant to offend Jin like that; it was just a slip of tongue that he hadn't really meant. "Alright, I'm sorry. I didn't mean that." Manabu says softly, trying to coax Jin.

The blond looks to him with one arched brow, clearly judging Manabu "You're so weird. You're mean one moment and the next; you're apologizing and trying to be nice."He says as a matter of fact as he leans in a bit to the raven "Are you some sort of moody, split-personality person?" Followed by an inquiry.

"You just caught me on an off day today." Manabu admits with a shrug "Here's what we'll do. Since, as you've said I'm a bit _moody_ , I'll read out loud for the both of us. And whenever you have a question, you tap my shoulder lightly, wait for me to stop and give you a go signal to ask. Are you alright with that?"

Jin seemed to take the offer into consideration at first, humming all the whilst before he nodded "Yeah sure. As long as you stop insulting me." He smiles.

"Good." Manabu replies before he starts to read again.

This time, Jin seemed to be engrossed in the story now. He had been listening intently to Manabu, sitting side by side with the raven as blue contact-lensed eyes followed the words Manabu read in his book. Jin stayed true to their agreement and proceeded to lightly tap Manabu's shoulder whenever he had a question about the story. Minimal little questions about the story like, how many were they in the family, what does the word Niang mean that Adeline uses so much, why did her father remarry and so on about the story.

Though, what Manabu found really adorable about Jin was when he'd tap Manabu's shoulder then, point to a specific letter in the book. He'd tell sometimes on how Manabu misread a word in Kanji, or they'd even have mini fights on how a word was pronounced properly. But, in the end the fight would ensue in them laughing it off and continuing with the story; Manabu writing the Kanji off in his phone to later on tell Jin which one of them was correct with the pronunciation and meaning. All in all, Manabu's impressed with Jin's reading skills. He himself admits that there were a lot of hard words in the book that he sometimes had a hard time reading.

Reading with Jin made the book a little more enjoyable.

But, what the raven didn't expect at all was for Jin to be so easy to get along with. He didn't do anything unnecessary to annoy Manabu, didn't make any noise that would disrupt the story and most of all, Jin seemed to finally be interested in the story. Manabu felt proud.

Even more so, when Jin complained about a specific scene. Manabu was back to crying and Jin was raging, breaths becoming a little heavier as they read about the part where Adeline's precious pet was brutally given as a show to their family's dog. Her pet chick PLT was seen as nothing more but, a toy to be played with for the dog. Their father had said to grab a chick from their shed to see if their dog was finally tamed; none of Adeline's siblings wanted their own pet to be met with the fate of death. But, since all of Adeline's elder siblings never really liked her that much, her best friend PLT was chosen as bait. Her only friend, only pet and the one other who can understand Adeline.

Jin was angered.

"I can't believe this!" Jin grumbles off irritated.

"You're lucky you haven't read the first pages, some of them were really..." Manabu fakes a shiver; he has no words to properly describe the torturous family Adeline has.

"How can your elder siblings be that... That! That cruel!" Jin exclaims out, his cheeks reddening in anger as the blond felt himself get absorbed with the story Manabu read "Can siblings even _be_ that cruel?" Jin asks the raven.

"I don't know." Manabu answers in a low voice "I have an elder brother but, he was always kind with me." he answers.

"See? I can't believe shit like this actually happens!" Jin says as he throws his hands up in the air, as though he doesn't want to believe what they're reading is true.

"I guess that's the real world?" Manabu just shrugs.

"Alright, please continue." Jin huffs out, trying to calm himself down in the process.

As Manabu continued on their journey with discovering the life of Adeline through her mini-biography; it only proved to pour out more emotions from both boys. The raven's tears wouldn't cease from falling, it felt as though with every word, paragraph and chapter Manabu read made him feel deeper. Every experience that Adeline went through was like a knife that cut through Manabu's heart. He felt nothing but pity and sadness for the poor little girl who wanted nothing but, to be loved by her own family. Yet, no matter how hard she tried it seemed as though she was always... _Forgotten._

Thank god the heroine has her aunty and grandfather. Manabu doesn't think anyone can survive without the care and help of at least one family member.

Jin on the other hand grew even angrier with the progress of the story. Manabu had never seen the blond so red and filled with ire. Manabu could already see the trickle of tears that were slowly appearing at the corner of Jin's eyes. There were sniffles that came from Jin, it wasn't hard to miss them since the raven sat so closely next to the blond.

For a moment, Jin really did somewhat resemble a cherry. With the exception of his blond hair, Jin's cheeks were so red. Manabu couldn't decipher properly if all that Jin felt was anger or if there was sadness in there too. The blond looked as though he was ready to punch a person from the way he had curled his hands into a fist.

Manabu wishes he brought two handkerchiefs with him; it seemed like Jin would need one soon.

They were in the middle of the book now, chapter 14. Manabu could hear Jin sniffling even louder, seemingly trying to hold back his own tears. Now the blond has read how cruel Adeline's family can really be. How living with a step-mother with two step-siblings who were obviously favoured felt like. He now knew the hardships she was going through, all of the abuse she had been going through and even more so that Manabu himself truly did not expect.

This story can truly wreck a person.

But, it was in chapter 14 where Jin himself let the tears flowed. The blond himself looked as though he couldn't hold on to another second of his so-called _'manly pride'_. Although, if anyone were to ask Manabu if crying was for girls, he'd flat out shut them down and tell them that crying was natural and was not exclusive for girls only. Men are allowed to cry as well and Manabu's pretty glad that Jin had opened up and let himself cry.

Ah, his fourth time meeting Jin and they're already crying together. Manabu can really feel a connection now, they're probably gonna bond real good after this.

"I know step-mothers from fairy tales were cruel but, fuck. Reading one from real life like this? I'm fucking scared." Jin admitted, rivulets of tears staining the blond's cheeks as he wiped them away furiously with the sleeve of his shirt. "I mean, who the fuck hits their kid? And she had to go out there to face her friends after being scolded like that!" He continues off, tears not ceasing any time soon.

"Of course Adeline isn't her real kid, but does she have to be like that?" Jin questions.

"I don't know." Manabu replies with a sniffle, wiping his own tears again. It was getting harder and harder to read with these goddamn tears in his eyes.

"Fuck, I'm hungry. I mean, I really _gotta eat_ something because of this shit." Jin grits his teeth in anger.

"Yeah, be my guest Jin. Go back to the cafe looking like that." Manabu replies.

"Don't be stupid Manabu-senpai." Jin retorts as he takes out his phone "I'm calling Ryoga-chan. Do you want anything from the cafe?" He asks the raven.

"Black coffee please." Manabu answers with another sniffle before he blows his nose to his handkerchief.

"Alrighty-- Ah, Ryoga-chan?" Jin says as his friend answers his call though, Jin was stuttering hard and it was too obvious in his voice that the blond was crying "Can you please bring the cherry short cake me and Shin made today?"

 _"Jin? Are you crying?!"_ Ryoga answered through the line, Manabu could hear him shout in concern.

"Yeah yeah, long story short. Please bring like 5 slices of it," Jin had to stop for a moment as he hiccupped "And an orange juice and black coffee please... Also, bring _lots and lots of tissues please._ " Manabu could practically hear the begging tone in Jin's voice as he pleaded for his friend to come save the day for the blond.

Damn, why can't Manabu have friends like that?

Manabu is definitely most clearly not jealous.

"Oh by the way, we're just at these bushes near the dog statues and water fountain." Jin adds finally. The blond nodded his head a few times, accompanied by an affirmative hum as a reply to Ryoga before Jin shut his phone back and looks up to Manabu with a smile.

"I asked Ryoga-chan to grab a couple of cakes for us. 5 is probably enough right?" Jin asked Manabu "Or should I have asked for more?" He pondered this time, voice a soft question as the blond stared back to his phone as though debating whether or not he should call his friend to ask for more cakes.

"5 is more than, enough." Manabu answers Jin's question "Who eats more than, 2 cakes a day?" He continues off, ignoring the grumbling sound of hunger his stomach suddenly made. Making both Jin and Manabu look at the raven's stomach for a moment before Manabu glanced away embarrassed.

"Mou, how was I supposed to know you don't eat that much?" Jin replied back with a pout as he lightly poked Manabu's arm and urged him to go back to reading "Can we please continue now while, waiting for Ryoga-chan?"

Manabu smiled back to the blond, nodding his head as Manabu continued to read off.

Yet, it didn't take long for Ryoga to find them. Manabu had just started reading chapter 15 of the book when the other waiter from the cafe started calling out Jin's name. Jin hiccupped and tried his best to sound as normal as possible when trying to lead Ryoga to their secret spot.

When the silver haired waiter finally emerged out from the bushes and came to their place, a look of disbelief was evident on the waiter's face as he shifted his gaze from Manabu to Jin and vice versa a couple of times before "Are you fucking kidding me?" Were the words to finally escape Ryoga's lips.

"Did you bring the cakes?" Jin asked instead as he went to stretch his hands out to the other whilst trying to grab a hold of the paper bag Ryoga held in his hands.

"Yeah but..." Ryoga started off, eyeing Manabu suspiciously as he slowly gave the bag to Jin "What're you guys doing here and..." He cut himself off, thoroughly scanning Jin and Manabu's faces first before he took in a deep breath and "Looking like _that._ " He finished off.

"Shut up! We're reading a book of great importance here!" Jin replied back as he gave Manabu's drink to the raven "Here you go."

"Do I have to pay for this?" Manabu asked as he took the cup from Jin then, proceeded to take his wallet from his pant pockets next.

"No need! I got ya covered this time." Jin said with a sly grin directed to Manabu as the blond took out a tissue from the paper bag and blew his nose on it "Ew."

"Can somebody please explain to me what's going on here." Ryoga exasperated.

"We're reading a book." Manabu answered this time as Jin gave a short cake to the raven "And it's really heart breaking that's why we're crying out eyes out here."

"Please tell me you're joking." Ryoga said.

"Nope," Jin answered this time as he took a bite from his cherry short cake and proceeded moan in pleasure at how delicious it was "I swear, whenever I make something it tastes absolutely delicious!" He exclaims out.

Manabu had taken it upon himself to grab a couple of tissues from the paper bag to make a make-shift cover on the ground for his book to lie at.

"Why do you need to do that?" Ryoga asks.

"Because I don't want my book to get dirty." Manabu says easily as he opens the small box of his short cake and proceeds to taste it "Oh, this is good."

"I can't believe I was worried for nothing!" Ryoga complains with a groan.

Out of the blue, Jin suddenly starts to sniffle and little tears escape his eyes once again.

"Oi, what's the matter this time?" Ryoga questions.

"Why is life so unfair?" Jin blurts out to no one in particular as he continues to eat his short cake "Manabu-senpai, let me borrow your book!" Jin continues off as he turns to the raven.

"No." was Manabu's quick and easy answer.

"Eh? Why not?! I wanna finish reading that!" Jin whines out to the raven whilst chomping down a couple more bites of cake into his mouth.

"Because I wanna finish reading it too." Manabu says as he takes a sip from his coffee.

"So mean! And I even treated you to cakes and coffee! And this is how you repay me?" The blond pouts, quickly finishing his short cake as he grabs another one from the paper bag.

The raven puts his cake away for a moment as he fishes out his wallet again "How much is the cake and coffee?" Manabu asks.

"300 yen." Ryoga answers.

"I said it's my treat! Why are you paying!" Jin complains.

"Well, you said I should repay you." Manabu says nonchalantly.

"With letting me borrow the book!"Jin tells the raven.

"When I finish reading it first."Manabu counters back, not wavering to Jin's pleads even a bit.

"But I wanna finish reading it now too!" Jin whines out to Manabu.

"Well tough luck, go get your own copy or wait for me to finish it first." Manabu says with finality as he eats his cake.

"Ugh! Can you guys quit fighting for at least one day!?" Ryoga chastises both of them as he eats a cherry short cake for himself.

?-


	7. Visit 05: Bittersweet Troubles

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Woohoooo!! Oh my gosh, I am so sorry for not updating this last month! August was so hectic like, so many things to write that I actually forgot to update this omgeh *gross sobbing*
> 
> Anyways! I hope you guys enjoy this ~ Also, two updates in one month because I could post this lol
> 
> Stuff here is getting good now =w= Getting to the good parts of the story ~

There was a piece of paper that Manabu had folded neatly; tucked deep into the pocket of his pants. There was a silly smile that was plastered upon the raven’s lips as he couldn’t wait to show Jin the words he had researched. After their small little _fits_ from reading Chinese Cinderella, Manabu could say that he and the blond had gotten close. _In a way._ Obviously, the raven knows that Jin is still irritated with and it’s solely based on the fact that Manabu can’t stop teasing the waiter.

And can anyone blame him? Jin looked way too adorable whenever he was provoked.

Anyway, back to his mission.Manabu had woken up on the right side of his bed for once. Although, can it be called waking up since the raven couldn’t even get a wink of sleep since he was excited to see Jin. They had agreed to check out the words they couldn’t fully understand from the story, typing a myriad of them on their phones before they parted ways a couple of days ago. Manabu had whipped out his dictionary, searching from page to page on a quest to rub it in Jin’s face that most of the words Manabu had explained was right from that day.

Right now, he and Jin were on an __academic war__.

Who would have thought that Jin would be fun to play with like this? He’s smarter than what Manabu had credited him for.That should be a lot since Manabu practically looks down on a lot of people.

And somehow, that kind of thinking made him sound like a douchebag.

Well, at least he doesn’t say it out loud nor makes anyone feel inferior.

Unlike, a __certain someone__ back at school but, Manabu doesn’t want to dwell on that.

He comes back to his favourite park; the scent of fresh air wafting up to his nostrils and surrounding Manabu in a feeling of pure bliss.This was always his favourite part of the day, coming to Kousaku Park and reveling in the serenity of it. This was his own little piece of heaven in a world of hell and full of people that are trash.

Ah, again with sounding like a douchebag.

But today, Manabu didn’t have enough time to properly appreciate the place. The raven was much too preoccupied with the fact that he was meeting Jin today... Alright, maybe saying he didn’t properly appreciate the park was an understatement since Manabu still strolled along the area for a good 30 minutes. Although, for the raven himself walking for half an hour and just sight-seeing was definitely not enough to truly admire the nature filled park.

What kind of idiot would not want to walk for hours on such a beautiful park anyways?

Yet, Manabu was a man on a mission. He needed to prove to Jin all of the correct answers he had told and-- woah, hold up a minute because Manabu is seeing a tree and it’s shade is hella nice and...

“Maybe just a minute.” The raven mutters to himself as he rests his back against the tree and sighs contently. The shade of the tree was nice and being accompanied by the summer breeze? It felt just too heavenly for Manabu not to stay for a moment. He sets his sight upon the area; surprisingly loving the amount of people that had accumulated the park. It was nice that there always seemed to be visitors. No matter how many, even a handful of people perhaps. Manabu is now enjoying the fact that there are people who appreciate Kousaku Park.

Maybe not as much as he does but, they value it anyways.

The sound of the wind with the small little distant chatting of strangers was rather calming for a change. Maybe in the end, Manabu was meant to enjoy all of these little things. Even the ones that he had found annoying at first.

Like, Jin!

...

No, he found Jin cute at the beginning and even cuter now.

Then maybe...

Nope, Manabu ain’t even gonna go there.

He felt himself shiver in disgust. Another awful thought came to him and now, Manabu’s mood was ruined. Why must he always do this to himself? The raven felt himself start to get hellishly irritated. His mood seriously moves from one thing to another way too fast for his liking. Which in a way is kinda his fault but also, it’s not like he can prevent it? Can he? Manabu doesn’t care and he’ll just have to deal with this as per usual.

And by dealing with this problem, he means moping about it and trying to forget the said problem by drowning in his favourite park.He took in a deep breath, calming himself down as he looked at his surroundings. It was always so peaceful here, so serene and beautiful. Even if the people were to sometimes ruin it or throw their trash away or let their kids destroy park properties... Kousaku Park always seems to get by and stay as beautiful as it is.

And that, Manabu respects so much.

More people should learn to enjoy this little piece of heaven more often. And because of this thought, Manabu finds it hard to think a little more highly of others.

Other people don’t know how to value something until, it’s gone.

He had resoluted himself to staying put under the shade of the tree;relishing in all the wonders and calming effects the park had until...

His stomach started rumbling out of nowhere.

The sudden sound of his own body drew Manabu out of his peace in shock. The raven placed a hand upon his stomach as he he looked down to his own tummy. How long had it been? Did he even eat breakfast?

Oh shit, Manabu didn’t eat breakfast... He was supposed to eat at the cafe!

The raven checked his wrist watch; his eyes nearly gauged out of their sockets. He had been standing under the shade of this tree for over 2 hours!? And he didn’t even notice?! Manabu drew out a reluctant sigh, he hadn’t entirely felt all that good yet. He hadn’t thoroughly drowned out his awful mood yet but, he can’t really miss another meal... Or well, he shouldn’t skip lunch now since it was way past breakfast already.

 _ _‘Can’t let that happen again.’__ He reminded himself.

And with that kind of resolution in his head, Manabu slowly came out of the shade of the tree. He took one more longing glance at the place, telling himself that he’ll come back there to probably have a mini picnic or to read a book.With that decision made, Manabu went back to his earlier mission. He wasn’t as excited as he was before but, he was still looking forward to seeing the little blond again.

It didn’t take him that long to find the cafe; having come to the place a couple of times made the raven remember the way anyway. How he would still get lost in his favourite place was a mystery to Manabu yet, it was always fun to have an adventure from time to time. Although, not when you’re angry and pissed and in need of food; when those kind of feelings get mixed up together it is very wise to not get lost at your favourite place. Because to be honest, you wouldn’t be able to enjoy it.So, Manabu tried as much as possible to not let that happen.

Finally, he comes to the cafe.When his eyes had first set upon the sign on top of it, with its fancy lettering and the classical house design of the place. Manabu can’t quite place his finger on it but, the cafe was slowly becoming a place that was having effects on him. Of course, it was enjoyable because it was at the park and the food was good and the workers were nice that Manabu got to get along with them quite easily. But, there was something else from it that was making the raven become sentimental.

Maybe, the cafe was a meant to be for the park in the first place.

Pushing the double doors open, Manabu immediately smelled the scent of mouth watering food. His stomach grumbled once again -more subtly this time- as pastries, pasta, and all kinds of different aromas that was filling the air... But the most delicious of them all? Was that ever charming and most bewitching fragrance of coffee. God, Manabu could probably live off of coffee alone, even its smell was heavenly!

He glanced around the shop, eyes immediately locking to his favourite spot.

“Afternoon sir!” One of the waiters caught his attention before he could even walk to his seat. Manabu turned his attention and saw Ryoga with a friendly smile on his lips.

The raven replied back with a small smile of his own, head nodding a little as he mumbled a barely audible. “Afternoon.” to the silver-haired waiter.

Manabu sat himself down at his usual spot, enjoying the view that it provided. The cafe was heavenly, he should do this more often. Although, coming to the cafe and eating here on an almost daily basis was slowly becoming a routine already. Ah, is that why he was becoming sentimental over this place? Well, it was the closest shop to get a quick bite at, not to mention the food is actually pretty good?

Once Manabu had set himself down on his seat; Ryoga was quick on his heel to grab a menu. “So, what’ll it be today?” He asked.

Manabu took the menu in his hands, carefully assessing the list of food that the cafe catered.Which one should he he choose for today? The raven doesn’t have much of an appetite, he mostly just wants to drink his black coffee. “The puttanesca pasta and black coffee please.”

“Is that all? How about dessert?” Ryoga inquired.

He considered the offer for a moment. Manabu didn’t feel like eating anything sweet at the moment but-- “I’m not sure. Probably not.” He answered the other back, to which Ryoga only nodded in reply.”By the way, is Jin here?” Manabu asked as he turned around to scan the area. He hadn’t seen the little blond since he had entered the cafe. Usually, Jin would be catering to the customers or cleaning empty tables as to how Manabu remembers every time he comes here but, today was rather queer since he hadn’t seen Jin yet.

“Oh Jin?” Ryoga started off. “He’s in the kitchen, helping out Kai-san and Shin for a while.We’re a little low on kitchen staff at the moment.” He explains off. “Your order will be up in 10 minutes.” Ryoga said as he took the menu from Manabu and walked off to the window bar, where the kitchen and the dining room for customers were separated.

Manabu watched as the other talked to one of the kitchen staff. He didn’t know who that guy was but, he was someone whom Manabu had seen before. Specifically, the person of whom had scolded Jin before when Manabu had irritated the blond and made him go on a mini outburst a couple of weeks ago.The raven watched them do their idle chatter for a moment before he tore his gaze away and looked to the window beside him. It was such a lovely day today, and Manabu was starting to feel rather good for now.

He took a hold of his bag then, rummaged inside it. Recently, Manabu had been reading old classic western books. It was only a small book that he had bought; one entitled ‘Ballet stories’. It was rather fascinating, although some of them Manabu had been able to read before since they’re fairy tale stories. But, there were a few that the raven had not been able to come across with.

And the story Ofelia was one of them. It was a rather interesting love story if people were to ask Manabu.The raven had started reading this book last night; trying to take a break from all those long stories that he usually read. There were a couple of ones that he had skipped, like the Swan princess or Thumbelina .

Although, the raven did feel a twinge of guilt when he had skipped them. It felt rather unethical or rude itself that Manabu was skipping pages and stories. Anyone would think that the raven was over-thinking or reacting from this kind of thought but, Manabu can’t really help it. It seemed like a crime itself to not finish every single story or to skip a few happenings here and there.

Even when those happenings are ones you already know of.

He contemplated for a moment whether he should continue on reading Ofelia or to rewind back to the older pages so he can read them more in order. And not in this chaotic disarray way where Manabu would skip onto the next one that he had not read yet.

But, before Manabu can come to a solution someone had caught his attention.He looked up when an all too familiar voice called out to him. Jin was looking at him with a smile as he had in his hands the tray of food that Manabu had ordered.His smile was looking as cute as ever although, Manabu could tell that there was something a little off with Jin.

And by off, Manabu means that there are huge bags under Jin’s eyes and the blond looked as though he hadn’t been sleeping at all recently.

“Yo, Manabu-kun!” Jin greeted out.

“You mean senpai right?” He retorted back to the waiter.

Jin could only rolls his eyes playfully whilst he served Manabu’s pasta. “Hai hai, Manabu- _ _senpai.__ ” The blond says with a chuckle. Jin looks over to the book Manabu held in his hands and for a moment, Jin’s eyes narrowed as he tried to read off the title.

“What’s that? Balleto stories?” Jin read out the title, clearly mispronouncing it.

“ _ _Ballet__ Jin. You know, like that really fancy kind of dancing.” Manabu correct the blond.

“Ah! Ballet!” Jin replies back, his tone of voice one of amusement.“That kind of girl sport.”

“Girl sport? It’s not really a sport though?” Manabu replies back with an arched brow.

“What do you mean it’s not a sport?” Jin retorts back to Manabu, looking at the raven incredulously. “Dude, even if it’s dancing, ballet--” Jin’s words were cut off when he a customer suddenly came through the front door. “Hold that thought, gotta take care of this first.” Jin said as he excused himself to greet their newest customer.

Manabu chuckled, watching the blond waiter for a moment before his attention focused on the food in front of him. He took the fork beside his plate then, started mix his pasta.One hand took a hold of his cup of coffee. Manabu watched the dark liquid for a moment, becoming temporary charmed by the dancing smoke that escaped the hot brewed drink.Carefully, Manabu took a little sip of his coffee, the hot liquid running down his tongue in a sweet sensational bitter taste.The bitterness of the beverage brought a smile up to his lips.

When Manabu took a started to eat, only after his third bite Jin came back to his table.

“So, about ballet __not being a sport__ as you’ve said so earlier.” Jin quickly started off.

Luckily for Manabu, he had just finished chewing his pasta and swallowed his food. “I have the words by the way.” He said off, gaining a strange look from Jin. He took out the piece of paper in the pocket of his jeans and showed it to the blond waiter. “From Chinese Cinderella.”

In a haste, Jin took the paper in glee. His eyes scanned the words as he said. “You’re awesome senpai!” He complimented Manabu, to which the raven took great pride in the blond’s words.”Ah, I wish I could’ve researched them too! I would rub it in your face that I actually got most of the answers correct.” The blond replied back with a smug little grin on his lips.

“Uhm, excuse me?” Manabu says back with an arch of his brow. “But, I obviously won at this round.”

“What do you mean you won?” Jin said back.

“Look here.” Manabu said as he moved close to Jin, pulling the waiter and the piece of paper he held as the raven pointed to all the words he had gotten correctly. “There were at least 22 words that we had fought over whilst we read Chinese Cinderella.Some of those were English words and others were Japanese with a really deep meaning. The English and Japanese words were respectively 11 each.I got 9 of them right while you on the other hand got 8 of them. 5 we were both completely wrong.”The raven explained off.

“What!? No way!” Jin exclaimed out, obviously not believing the raven. “I refuse to believe that you actually got the best of me with this.” He argued.

“Is that so hard to believe?” Manabu replied back as he took another bite from his pasta. “I mean, I’m older and probably read more books than you. It’s not really that hard to see who would win at this.”

“Okay look here--” Jin’s words were cut off when Ryoga called out to him.“This isn’t over. Give me a sec to handle this.”He said before running off to the kitchen where he was being called to.

Manabu chuckled at Jin; he didn’t know that blond could be somewhat of a sore loser. He took the piece of paper where the words they argued over were written. When Manabu had been researching the words a couple of days ago, he had grown a little worried since Jin himself had been in the leading at first. But over time, their scores matched up as Manabu continued and eventually, it was the raven whom had come out victorious.

He folded the piece of paper once again then, placed it to the side for now. It seemed that Jin would take quite a while to get back to him since, he was helping out in the kitchen.Manabu took his book again, and started to read off from where had had left. Apparently, Ofelia was this beautiful daughter of a famous toy maker. She was known by many and was beautiful and seemed to have a lot of suitors. Yet, the only thing that was a problem was that her father was strict and didn’t seem to want to marry her off. The young lady was trapped and encaged in the confines of their home.

The story seemed interesting enough.A young man whom had walked pass Ofelia’s house instantly fell in love with her beauty. Although, the story itself was something that seemed to be quite mental. Because like come on! How can you fall in love with someone you’ve never even talked to nor met? Yet, at the same time it made Manabu smile and read the story all the more.

Since as he knows for himself, Manabu is such a sucker for love stories.

Even though, this one was a little strange.

He took careful work of reading a couple of lines from time to time before he took a bite out of his food. This was a normal and common thing in Manabu’s life. Even when he was eating or in some place, the raven never failed to bring or read a book with him. Books were like a lifeline to him, Manabu wouldn’t know what the hell he should do with himself he were to go on a day without having a book in his hands.

Yet, even when the raven was preoccupied with the food and book in front of him; he still took quick glances at the window and door to the kitchen. He couldn’t help but, be curious as to why’s taking Jin such a long time. Although, Manabu’s perception of time was rather screwed as he was sure that the other was taking longer than, usual. And how does Manabu know this? Because he was observant and when the cafe has a new customer, they usually don’t let them wait more than, 15 or 20 minutes for their food. It was one of those good perks that Manabu had come to love about the cafe.

Since Manabu was a rather impatient person from time to time, he had really appreciated the employees speed to catering to their customers.

Manabu couldn’t keep a full on focus on his food and book. He couldn’t help but, avert his attention for a few minutes at the employees. And by employees he means Jin usually but, right now the only waiter that he could see at all was Ryoga.

It must be tough being a waiter. Having to do such manual labor then, to socialize with so many strangers. The mere idea of it made the raven shiver in anxiety. He was never one who was too fond of having to talk to or chat up with people. Manabu didn’t even like to talk that much with his friends; and in those rare instances that he was talkative, Manabu more or less needed at least a couple of days or week of isolation to bring his energy back up.

So all in all, Manabu was a full blown introvert that was very fond of his own company.

He was often not focused on eating his pasta. It was rather hard to eat-read when at the same time he was waiting for Jin to appear. The main highlight of his day was focused on Jin.This was the long-awaited moment that the raven had been waiting for. And by moment, he meant rubbing it in other people’s face he was right. In a way, Manabu’s somewhat of a know-it-all smart ass type of guy but, he takes pride in that... __Sometimes__.

After what felt like an eternity of waiting-eating the blond waiter of whom Manabu had been anticipating to talk to had finally arrived.

Weird that Manabu was anticipating and is thoroughly excited for his conversation with Jin.

Maybe, it really was that fun to hang out with Jin? Or maybe it was fun to tease him? A bit of both maybe? Anyways, this was now one of Manabu’s favourite past times.

Jin came to his table with a groan; the blond had to make their new customers his priority first before making some time for Manabu. Luckily though, it seemed that today had been becoming a rather slow day. Earlier it felt rather busy, a couple of customers here and there that came and go and now... It was as though the amount of people had suddenly dissipated as there was only three of them sitting in the cafe’s tables, Jin excluded.

“I swear, today is so hectic!”Jin complained , irritated.

“Is that so?” Manabu replied back non-chalantly. He hadn’t fully ignored the book he was reading, only slowly reading it now. His pasta was only half-eaten as he kept his eyes on his book. Although, it was rather hard to keep on reading when Jin was in front of him, demanding attention and to be talked to by Manabu.

Tsk tsk, Jin needs attention.

“Uhm yeah? Did you not see the crowds of people here earlier!?” Jin questioned.

“Haven’t noticed.” Manabu retorts, taking another bite of his food. “I did notice that you took a long time in the kitchen though?”

“Oh yeah that,” Jin sighs tiredly. “One of our chef, Shin, is out with the flu so, I had take his place for now. Since, Reita-san is completely incapable of helping Kai-san in cooking.”

“Kai-san? You mean that guy who scolded you before when you drank my coffee?” Manabu recalls, pointing that one memory out to Jin.

“Yes! You know, I got in deep trouble that day thanks to you!”The blond glares.

“What are you talking about? I was being a totally civilized customer that day.”Manabu retorts.

Jin looked at the raven, scandalized; a gasp fell upon the blond’s lips as he insisted. “No you weren’t! You were very rude!”

Manabu was about to argue back but, Ryoga had beat him to it. The silver haired waiter flicked the back of Jin’s head. “How many times do we have to tell you to stop arguing with our customers?” He scolded Jin. “Do I have to call Kai-san again?”

Jin was quick to shake his head, smiling up at his bestfriend. “Nope! I’m being a totally good waiter here Ryoga-chan.”

“Good.” Ryoga says before he turns to Manabu.”Please don’t hesitate to tell me if this guy does anything stupid.” He points his thumb to Jin.

“Will do Ryoga-kun.” Manabu replies back with a lazy salute.

“Hey! I’m being nice here!” Jin defends himself. He crosses his arms against his chest pouting. “I should’ve stayed in kitchen.”

“You’re just hiding in the kitchen because you don’t want to admit defeat.”

“Oi! I was in the kitchen for official business! I was truly needed there!” Jin brags with a firm nod of his head.

“Uhuh, really?” Manabu teases with a smirk.

“Yes really! I was the one who made your pasta today ya know?” Jin tells the raven.

“Really?”Manabu says, but this time his tone of voice was leaning more into a surprised one. “So what are you really? A cook or a waiter?”

“A bit of both to be honest.” The blond waiter replies with a shrug of his shoulders. “Although, I do prefer kitchen work better. We just don’t have enough staff for waiters so I have to sacrifice myself and work hard here.” He says with a dramatic sigh at the end.

“Well, I did notice that only you and Ryoga seem to be here.”Manabu agrees. “What’s your specialty then?”

“Specialty?”

“Yeah, your best work. Don’t tell me you’re a mediocre or something?” Manabu says with an arched brow.

“Or course not! I’m an awesome cook!” Jin quickly retorted, making Manabu chuckle. “But, I kinda prefer baking and making sweets most of the time?”

“Ah,a real sweet tooth this one.”

“You can tell?” Jin says as he chuckles cutely and Manabu swears from heaven down to hell that his stomach fluttered and he thought for a moment if that was a stomach ache or the food Jin gave him had something weird in it. He felt himself palpitate for a split second and Manabu is seriously questioning if Jin sabotaged his pasta.

Is this food poisoning?

In a way, Manabu somewhat hopes that it is food poisoning.

The raven clears his throat at first, finding himself suddenly hot under the collar. Why did the raven feel this way? Every time he was with Jin or whenever the blond waiter would talk and chat up with him, there was subtle twisting inside his chest that made it quite hard to breath at times. Manabu had speculated this kind of feeling right from the start; there was that small voice in the back of his head that was telling him this was something.

But of course, Manabu chose to ignore that voice up till now.

This little crush he has on Jin? Totally nothing.

“Ye-yeah... It’s pretty obvious ya know?” The raven starts off, his words stuttering a little as he smiled at the waiter. It suddenly felt rather awkward... No, __Manabu felt awkward.__ “So, specialties?”

The blond waiter hums, contemplating for a moment on what his specialty is. “I’d say it’s probably cherry cream pie.” Jin says with a big smile plastered on his lips; beaming with pride as he said so. Manabu was supposed to ask if he can order the pie but, Jin had beat him to it. “Ah, but we don’t serve it here at the cafe sadly.” He pouts a little at the fact. Manabu himself feels rather sad from the news.

“Why’s that?”

“I don’t know. I guess we forgot to put it in the menu?” Jin replies back to Manabu. “Kai-san told me before that it tastes really good for an apprentice. But, I think there’s still room for improvement in my pie.” Jin adds off. “Don’t you think so too?”

“I don’t know, I never tasted it before so...” Was his quick retort with a shrug. “But yeah, improve on it.” Manabu quickly adds off, faking a cough to hide the stutter in his voice as his hand quickly grabs a hold of his drink. He takes a sip at his coffee because the raven is really having a hard time not feeling awkward here. He can feel his cheeks heating up and for some odd reason he doesn’t know what to do with his hands and since his coffee was the nearest thing he could grasp upon... “But hey, can I order that?” He inquires to the blond. “Even though, it’s not on the menu of course.”

Manabu was genuinely curious as to what Jin’s specialty would taste like. Would it be sweet? Or somewhat salty-bitter-ish? Sometimes cherries had the tendecy to taste like that right? Right? Or is Manabu imagining things now?

“Humm... I’ll think about it.” Jin said with a teasing smirk.

“Wow, here I am ordering your specialty and you said you’ll think about it?”

“Why not? It’s my dessert so, my rules.” The waiter chuckled as he stuck his tongue out to the other. “By the way, don’t we have other __more important matters__ to discuss?” Jin reminds the raven with the suggestive wiggle of his brows.

Manabu was confused for a moment, wondering what on Earth Jin could be pertaining to? And no, Manabu was most definitely not staring at Jin and focusing fully on that suggestive look plastered all over his face. Nope, nope!

It took the raven a minute or two to finally absorb what Jin had meant. “Ah! The words!” He replied back or more like, said to himself in realization.

“Wow, you’re pretty slow today. Earth to senpai, are you alright?” Jin says chuckling, playfully waving his hand in front of Manabu.

“Shut up, it just left my mind for a second alright?” Manabu grumbled, feeling all the more embarrassed about his forgetfulness.He grabbed a hold of the folded piece of paper he had stashed away for a moment then, gave it to the blond. “Here, you can clearly __see for yourself__ that __I won__.” Manabu stated off with a smug smirk dancing on his lips; beaming with full pride.

Jin snatched the piece of paper from Manabu’s hands, clearly looking quite offended by the raven’s haughtiness. “We’ll see about that! I’m pretty sure you rigged some of the words here just so you would win.” The blond says firstly before reading off the list that they have made.

Manabu could only sigh, ego growing by the second. “Go on and read them all. You’ll find that I won fair and square.”

The blond’s eyes scanned the piece of paper meticulously. Or at least that’s what it looks like to Manabu anyways; but not that the raven was watching the waiter read the paper. Nope, not at all. Manabu was just glancing from time to time at the other whilst he ate his pasta and drank his coffee. It just so happened that Manabu wanted to look at Jin’s serious face that would scrunch up in anger from time to time, or how the blond would look in awe or confusion at what he was reading. Manabu was most definitely not staring nor was he silently admiring the small changes of features that came pass and go by on the blond’s face.

Nope, Manabu was most definitely not admiring Jin.

“Oi! How can I be so sure that you didn’t just write off the meanings here and made it look like you got most of’em right?” Jin suddenly questioned, accusing Manabu of cheating.

“Because my dear Jin, I would never do such a nasty trick. Unlike you maybe?” Manabu counters back with an innocent smile gracing his lips.

“Excuse me?! I would never! But, there’s still the possibility that you did it yourself to win!” Jin retorted, adamant on making Manabu admit that he had cheated.

“Jin.” The raven started. “You can accuse me how many times of cheating just so you can win against me but, it doesn’t change the fact that I still won here.” He said off, taking a bite from his pasta first to look even more calm and cool around Jin’s heated accusation. “Besides, where’s your proof that I cheated? Tell you what, you can take home that piece of paper, skim through your dictionary and realize for yourself that I did win and you lost.”

“I don’t have a dictionary back at my apartment.” Jin grumbled, arms folding against his chest.

“What kind of student are you? You don’t have a dictionary?!” Manabu exclaims out flabbergasted.

“Not every student should have a dictionary!” Jin argued.

“You’re not a student! You’re a delinquent! Oh my god!” Manabu says in horror.

“Shut.Up.” Ryoga interjects into their conversation as he hits Jin’s head first then, Manabu’s secondly. “You two are being too noisy and disturbing our customers.” He points out to the duo, looking from his co-worker to Manabu. “And Manabu-san. I appreciate you as one of our customers but, please don’t spoil Jin too much with your attention. Or better yet, don’t let him drag you with his shenanigans.”

“Ryoga-chan! You’re supposed to be on my side!” Jin whined out.

“Since when?” Ryoga countered.

“Since we became bestfriends!” The blond replied back betrayed.

“Bestfriends help their bestfriend not do stupid things and get each other fired.” Ryoga explained off, lightly ruffling Jin’s hair.”Just because we don’t have enough customers doesn’t mean you can slack off and have your own break time now.”

The way Ryoga touched Jin’s hair made Manabu stare. It wasn’t that he was jealous, he just kinda wanted to touch Jin’s hair too. To have those soft blond locks run through his fingers and have his fingers twirl and play with those golden strands and--

“I can’t believe you’re my friend.” Jin says in a disappointed tone of voice.

“Why? You wanna break up with me now?”Ryoga inquires with a smirk.

“No no! I need your English homeworks to help me get by in school.” Jin says with a smirk to the other.

Ryoga rolls his eyes at the blond’s reply. “You’re such a user. Anyways, don’t slack off. We might get more customers later.” And with that, the silveret left the duo alone.

“Heh, hopefully Ryoga does all the work.” Jin mumbled a little too loudly in glee.

“You’re awfully close.” Manabu comments, catching Jin’s attention.

“We are. We’ve been bestfriends since elementary.” Jin replies back non-chalantly eyes not straying away from the paper he was reading.

Manabu found his lack of eye contact with Jin to be rather irritating. “Hmp, bestfriend? More like boyfriend.” He says in a teasing tone of voice. “He even delivers cakes to you.” There is absolutely no amount of jealousy in his voice, nope.

The blond finally looks up to Manabu and his expression is something akin to __‘Are you fucking serious?’__ or as to what Manabu may describe it. “That is disgusting. I can’t believe out of all the people in the world, people think I would go out with Ryoga.”Jin replies back, sticking his tongue out as if to further make his point of disgust.

There was that small feeling of relief when Jin said that but, Manabu’s not about to indulge in that. “Why not? He seems like a pretty cool guy.”

“Cool?! You think Ryoga’s cool!?” Jin said in utter disbelief. “I can’t believe there are people who actually think that.” he mutters lowly, looking away for a moment. “Oi, if you like Ryoga don’t even think about it. The guy’s a total dork and you’re so not his type!” Jin quips.

It was Manabu’s turn to look at Jin in disbelief. “What makes you think that I like him?”

“Because! You said he was cool! Nobody ever thinks that!” Jin exasperates.

“I really think you’re the only one who think’s he’s a dork though,” Manabu counters, looking over to the silver haired waiter for a moment before he brings his attention back to Jin. “Besides, compared to you. He definitely looks cooler.”

“Why I oughtta!” Jin started, ready to pick another fight with Manabu. But, before he could and before Manabu could even prepare himself for Jin’s wrath. The blond’s phone suddenly started ringing. “Give me a sec.” Jin excused himself as he whipped his phone out from his pocket to check the caller.

In an instant, Jin’s face beamed. His smile seemed to have blinded Manabu for a split second as his lips could’ve beat the cheshire cat’s smile. “Sorry, I gotta take this.” Jin said to which Manabu only nodded his head and let Jin go. The blond quickly jumped off his seat and answered his call.

“Onii-chan!”

Those were the words Manabu had caught upon before Jin ran his way back to the kitchen for some well deserved privacy. Although, Manabu would have thought that the outside of the cafe would have been a better choice for privacy but, it’s Jin anyways. The raven’s thoughts fluttered over to the phone call that Jin had gotten. A big brother? Huh, it seems that they were a like in some ways. Although, when you meet Jin and were to think about his family, you would immediately think that __‘Ah, this guy is probably the youngest.’__ or something like that. Manabu can’t put his finger on it but, the youngest children are usually very happy go lucky and talkative and warm right? Well, with the exception of Manabu of course but, that’s what’s normal right?

Manabu started to distract himself from thoughts of Jin. He can’t always be thinking of the blond waiter. Because, if he did then, what a big waste of time right?

Like, it’d only remind him of the time he wasted before.

Not going to that memory.

Anyways, he finished his pasta and was now sporting his coffee. It had gotten rather cold from the time that had passed by, but it still had some warmth to it. Manabu averted his attention to the window beside him; it was a rather sunny day. Hopefully, more clouds would come by since Manabu hates those god awful rays of sunshine.

Even moreso when he has to walk under them, bleh.

His coffee was almost emptying and the thought came to him that Jin was taking way too long. Although, obviously he was talking to his brother and probably had some important family things to discuss. Manabu just doesn’t want to idly sit alone for once---

“JIN!” The sudden shout of the blond waiter’s name caught Manabu by surprise.

Everyone attention had averted to the kitchen’s door and right on cue, Manabu had seen Jin. The blond had hastily opened the kitchen door, running away. He didn’t know what had happened but, it was obvious that what Jin and his brother had talked about had thoroughly upset the blond. Jin didn’t even give a glance to Manabu’s side as he quickly exited the place.

Yet, as the blond ran, another blond came chasing after him. He seemed to be one of the cooks in the cafe as well, judging from the apron that Manabu had saw.

“Kai-san, should I?” Manabu heard Ryoga’s voice cut in and Manabu averted his gaze to see Kai and Ryoga talking to one another.

“No don’t. Reita’s gonna talk to him.” Kai replied back.

Manabu was having a hard time in guessing what had happened and it was even harder when he couldn’t hear what Ryoga and Kai were talking about. He heard Ryoga call out to the elder earlier but, that was about it. Manabu was itching to ask what the hell was happening and if there was anything he could help with.

But, he couldn’t. This seemed to be something totally out of Manabu’s league and business.

He hopes Jin will be alright.


	8. Visit 06: Burnt Rice

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh my oh my  
> the story's about to get real interesting you guys =w=
> 
> Also more new characters <3

****Day four since the last time that he had seen Jin. Manabu was growing worried by each passing day. After the last time: wherein the blond waiter had hurriedly. Manabu had been coming to the cafe everyday just to see if Jin was doing better. Of course at first, the raven thought that he was being weirdly too worried about Jin but,then again it wasn’t everyday that you see a friend of yours being all too happy one second and the next, they’re running out the door avoiding every person in sight.

Friend... That was a rather unfamiliar feeling to the tongue.

Or to the thought itself, because Manabu rarely has friends. Having friends can be either a bother or a burden. Either way, the raven would prefer to call Jin his colleague or something. 

Anyways, back to the problem at hand. Jin was missing. And by missing, Manabu means he hadn’t seen the blond at their usual day for almost a week and Manabu... Well, he can’t really say that hee misses Jin, he’s just... Worried... Yeah, worried about another person’s well-being because Manabu’s a pretty decent person like that.

So again, his Jin problem. And yes, Manabu is calling this his Jin problem because why the heckie not? First and foremost, Jin is the main concern here. Because he took the paper that had all the right answers to their last fight! Like, they didn’t even declare who the winner is!

And Manabu may seem like an asshole, to which at some extent he may be.

But aside from that, he is worried.

And now, here Manabu is again dragging his ass back to the cafe because maybe... _Just maybe_ , Jin will come back and be working today.

He enters the cafe’s double doors, eyes scanning the place and the waiters as soon as he caught sight of the inside. There were a couple of customers yes, and Ryoga, and... Well, there was another waiter whom was serving but, the guy definitely wasn’t Jin. The dude had red hair and was quite taller than, his blond waiter.

Manabu sighed and thought that maybe Jin was working in the kitchen this time? What were the odds of that? The blond did say that he preferred to be working as a cook or patisserie right? So maybe... Manabu just wants to think positively for once.

The new waiter with red hair approaches him and Manabu feels a tad bit sorry for the guy because of his foul mood.

“Good morning sir! I’ll be your waiter today, my name’s Yuji.” He says in a cheery tone of voice that somewhat reminds him of Jin. Yuji hands him a menu to which Manabu takes and scans lazily.

He doesn’t have an appetite for anything today and the raven just wants to see and talk to Jin. But, sadly it seems that the blond is still nowhere in sight and that is definitely messing with Manabu’s mood.

Where had Jin gone to? 

“I”ll have a...” He starts off, not really making up his mind on what he wants to order. He sighs and gazes at his server; Yuji only smiles at him patiently. “Do you know when Jin will be coming back?”He blurts out instead without so much as thinking about his question.

His inquiry caught both of them off-guard. Manabu and Yuji’s eyes widening; although Manabu from shock and embarrassment Yuji from being asked an out of the blue question.

Manabu’s head was overheating because he cannot... No, would not accept the fact that he had said something so embarrassing. And in the midst of his embarrassment, Yuji himself had fidgeted uncomfortably. The red head replied back slightly stuttering. “I...I just started working here today... So, I’m sorry but I don’t know who that is.”He nearly mumbled out flushed.

Manabu himself became even more flushed. “I-It’s alright. Sorry for asking something so dumb.” Was his quick retort as Manabu kept his gaze on the menu in his hands before quickly blurting out. “I’ll just have an omu rice.” He said ordered the first thing his eyes laid upon just so they wouldn’t have to deal with such an awkward situation.

Yuji nodded then, asked.”Drinks sir?”

“Just a cup of coffee, black.”

“Alright, I’ll have your order in 10 minutes.”He said quickly before walking away to get Manabu’s order.

Manabu sighed for what felt like the umptenth time that day. He rested his arms on his table, chin resting on the palm of his hand. His deep chocolate brown eyes stared upon the usual window to his his right. Somehow, he can’t find himself enjoying the scenery outside. Usually, all he ever needed was his cup of coffee and the greeneries of his favourite park to complete his day. But, right now? The raven felt uneasy and uncomfortable to be at this very place. He couldn’t help the fact that his thoughts kept on lingering over and over again to Jin.

Jin... His blond waiter... Where had he gone to?

From the corner of his eye he had spotted Ryoga. He knows that for a while now, that the silver-haired waiter had been subtly avoiding him... Or as subtly as Ryoga can put it, since Manabu can sense it from a mile away that Ryoga didn’t want to confide in anything. Their gazes had met only for a split second; Manabu’s eyes boring into Ryoga’s for a moment before the silveret quickly ducked his head down and scurried off to a different part of the area for work.

Typical.

Why did it awfully feel like everyone in the cafe was hiding something from him? Everyone except for the new waiter Yuji of course. But, other than the red-haired waiter everything was off. Things became odd ever since that day that Jin came running out of the cafe and was swiftly followed by another blond haired co-worker. Ever since that faithful happening, coming to the cafe felt queer. It wasn’t the same without Jin. There was that certain aura and atmosphere that only the blond could give and without him... Well, without him it seemed as though there was only gloom and doom in the cafe. To which, if Manabu may add was totally not a good theme to attract customers.

Luckily for the cafe, Manabu is rather used to gloom and doom themes.

Which in this case, can be rather handy in waiting for Jin.

His gaze averts to the corner again and just in luck, Ryoga was cautiously trying to pass by Manabu’s place without being noticed. Sucks to be him.

“Hey Ryoga,” Manabu greets the other with a small smile.

The silver haired waiter visibly stiffens at the greeting. Body looking as though it was paralyzed for a split second as Ryoga stopped mid step. Slowly, he turned his own gaze to Manabu’s direction as he tried to smile-only for it to look strained- at Manabu.”He-heya Manabu-san.” He replied back, voice stuttering a tad out of jitters. “How’re ya?”

Manabu could only shrug in rely at first; he was feeling the usual neutral self of his. Nothing new, nothing special. “Same old, nothing new, nothing special.” He replied back casually.

“Ah, I see.” Ryoga said with a nod of his head as his body quickly tried to move forward. “Anyways, nice seeing ya I gotta go--”

“Why do you look so nervous? Lighten up dude.” Manabu said with an arched brow and a teasing smirk.

Ryoga chuckled, seemingly noticing his own awkwardness as he scratched the back of his head. “Yeah sorry, just a little stressed out and all.”

“Yeah, I can tell. It’s probably because you’ve been having shifts all alone for the past couple of days. When do you think Jin will come back?” Manabu inquired this time.

At the question, Ryoga’s eyes widened. There was an obvious pause in him which in, the silveret had to take a halt of a moment for him to think. Ryoga swallowed, looking from left to right before he leaned in close to Manabu and whispered. “I’m really sorry Manabu-san, but I can’t talk about this.” And with that, Ryoga bowed in apology before making his way to one of their customers.

Manabu was at a loss for words; he quickly turned to his right to stare at the nature outside but the audible tsk that left his lips didn’t go unnoticed. He was frustrated and worried; what had happened to Jin? Why was everyone keeping him a secret to Manabu? The more days that pass that he hadn’t seen Jin the more it felt as though the blond was a mere figment of his imagination, an illusion or dream or sort it may be that Manabu had concocted up in this twisted head of his out of all the pitiful thoughts and sadness he felt.

He wanted... No _needed_  to find out what had happened to the blond waiter.

Yet, just as Manabu was trying to devise a plan to get Ryoga to talk to him their new waiter Yuji had came to him with a tray of his order. “Here you go.” The redhead said with a smile, and just as quickly as he had came Yuji was away.

The raven stared at the food in front of him. He suddenly had no appetite whatsoever and any lingering feelings of famish had completely been thrown out of the window. He hadn’t felt like this in the longest while, the feeling of... _Looking_  for someone. It seemed as though that Jin’s presence had done a number on him; it was only for less than, a month that Manabu had known the golden haired waiter yet, he had found himself searching for Jin. And on a particular note, Manabu does not understand as to why? Since when had it happened? What scenario or route in particular had Manabu taken for such a path to unfold?

Of course he had enjoyed Jin’s company; it was fun to tease and make fun of the short kouhai. It was interesting that Jin had recommended various types of sweets for Manabu to try, even when the raven himself was far from being a fan of sweets. The blond had intrigued him with surprising smarts and wits that had sometimes bested Manabu and made the raven curiouser and curiouser about the waiter.

But why? How did--

Not unless...

Manabu was quick to shake his head at the arising thoughts and conclusions that was running about in his question filled head. He would not say it, nor even think of such an absurd and nasty idea. To try and divert his thoughts from such things, Manabu quickly grabbed a hold of the cup of coffee beside his food. He grabbed it with both hands, palms enveloping the hot mug in his hands as he tried to feel as much as he could of the hot tethering deliciousness which is his black coffee. He pulled it close to him, taking in the scent of of his drink. Eyelids nearly closed at the sensation of such an aroma and oddly enough, the aroma itself had reminded him of Jin.

He could faintly hear it; the blond’s tone of disgust as he darts his tongue out at the sight of the black coffee. A small smile makes its way up to Manabu’s lips; Jin was such a sweet tooth and it was endearing in its own way. He had grown so accustomed to Jin serving him at the cafe all the time that he had somewhat acquainted the smell of black coffee to Jin.

Weird is it not? For Manabu to relate black coffee to a sweet tooth.

He took a sip of his drink, slowly as if savouring the taste of it. He tried to enjoy it as much as he could, but still it wasn’t the same. Was it also Jin whom had made his black coffee? For some odd reason, the taste of this seemed a tad bit more... Bitter for his own taste buds. Normally, Manabu would like his coffee to be as bitter as possible, since that was life. That was how the raven’s life normally went and had gone for all those years of living.

Bitter and dark.

But today, the coffee seemed extra bitter. Was it just a coincidence or did somebody tamper with his drink? He had noticed it for a long while now, his coffee tasting more and more different with each passing day. It seemed as though it was far from the coffee he had first tasted in this very cafe. Strange, how can coffee from the same cafe taste so different all of a sudden?

There were whirlwinds of queries running around in Manabu’s head that it didn’t occur to him that he had spaced out. Although, it was nothing new to him, the raven had often times been too engulfed in his own thoughts that he would stare into nothing.

But this time, someone was here to call him out.

“Manabu-san, are you alright?” Ryoga said to him.

Manabu jumped a little at the call; nearly spilling his drink as he quickly looked to Ryoga with wide innocent eyes.

“Ah! I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you.” Ryoga said in a haste, two hands clasp together in apology and expressions looking very much guilty.

“Uh, no it’s fine. I space out a lot.” Manabu retorts back with a slight shrug as he places his mug down. Not trusting himself at the moment of not spilling its contents down on him.

“You do? I haven’t noticed.” Ryoga replies back. “You always seem to be engrossed in something or talking to Jin, rather than space out.” He blurts out non-chalantly before the familiar ring of the bell came into the room signaling that another customer had walked in. “Sorry, gotta get this.” He apologizes before walking away to greet their new customers.

The words that Ryoga had spilled to Manabu had left the raven even more confused than, before. Him? Not spacing out? Manabu being normal? Or like, being seen as normal at least? How queer it is... To be seen as a normal person for once.

Manabu looked down on his omu rice, it had been served far too long already and Manabu has an inkling of a guess that it’s not as warm as it was first served earlier. With a sigh, Manabu decides to just shove the food down his throat. It would be a waste of money anyways to let such good food go to waste. He lazily and with much too much energy grabbed a hold of the fork beside his plate. His finger lazily held his fork, nearly feeling it slip off from his grasp from how lightly he was holding the silverware.

And again, with much too much effort Manabu slowly cuts a piece of his omu rice. He ever so slowly rises it up then, takes a bite at the delicacy. He chews it and--

The rice and egg itself taste very burnt.

The raven sighs, putting his fork down as he clearly can’t stomach his food down. It’s not the same, nothing is the same without Jin. Every little thing and even big thing about the cafe was different. Hell, the cooking itself was burnt and just downright unedible.

Manabu takes out his wallet, counting a couple of paper bills and was thankful that he had just the right amount of paper money to pay for his food. He places the bill on the table, putting it under his cup of coffee. As soon as the deed was done Manabu got up from his seat and walked out of the cafe... Although, not before getting stopped by their new waiter Yuji.

“I’m sorry sir!” Yuji tried desperately.

Manabu stopped on his heel for a second before he turned to look at Yuji for a second and reply. “I suddenly remembered something I have to do; the money’s under the cup of coffee.” He replies back easily as he waves his hand and exits the cafe.

As he steps out of the cafe, the breeze from the park is no longer there. It feels as though there’s no air and that Manabu can’t quite enjoy his day. Isn’t  it odd that the one thing he had used to love so much suddenly felt like nothing one day? This was scary.

Or maybe he was just feeling numb?

Manabu took a small halt in his steps, raising his arm up so he can give a pinch.

Nope, he was most definitely not feeling numb today.

But why? There was something definitely wrong today and it all started with Jin. Manabu wanted to get to the bottom of it all.Maybe, it was these thoughts of worry that engulfed him wholly was the reason for such a sour mood to fall upon him? Slowly but gradually he had gotten closer to Jin. It felt like somewhat of a slow burn, from Manabu’s little teases and times spent with Jin he had grown accustomed to the blond even with such a small time allotted to them.

Ah yes, that was the answer. He was worried for a friend.

No matter how much Manabu may want to deny it, he should at least accept the fact that he had become friends with the blond. Although, they have yet to exchange phone numbers and emails with each other it was close to that. Acquaintances maybe would be a more correct term to label their current relationship?

He sighed, ruffling his already messy lock of raven hair. “I don’t know.” He mutters off to himself as he turns to exit the park.

There was nothing fun nor exciting about the park right now. There was nothing that he wanted to do and not even the usual calming and beautiful greeneries mother nature had to offer gave any sense of comfort towards Manabu. It was as though, the entire world had suddenly become black and white.

Strange, he had never felt like this towards a friend before.

Emotions are such strong and powerful things; hopefully he’ll have to deal with this in just a short span of time.

There was an eerie feeling today up until he went back to his apartment. Manabu felt as though he was floating and that nothing was real. He could touch and grab a hold of things like the walls or his keys but, they didn’t feel real. It was as though, he can touch them but, can’t feel them.

Did that make sense? Of course it didn’t but, that was how Manabu felt.

Opening the door to his apartment, he immediately locked it then stripped down to his boxers. Everything was laid down to a mess, since Manabu himself was rarely ever the type of person to clean up after himself. It felt extra depressing at times, having to clean up after yourself. He sometimes remembered being back at home in Osaka, wherein his mother would nag him to eat better and clean his mess. The nostalgia of it sometimes hits him at certain moments such as now.

He lays down on his bed, face nuzzling against his already smelling sheets. It’s been almost a month since he last changed his bedsheets, he should do that soon. Manabu hugs his pillow close to him, eyes slowly closing. He hadn’t realized at all that he was feeling drowsy; it was as though his eyelids had suddenly felt heavy and that the sleeping feeling of slumber had suddenly woken up and enveloped him.

Heh, sleeping feeling of slumber had woken up. What a joke, Manabu can make himself laugh, he’s so awesome.

With a small smirk on his lips, Manabu closes his eyes and lets dreams come to him.

Was what he had wished.

It felt only like 5 or 10 minutes and suddenly the raven had woken up. It wasn’t that he was uncomfortable, but he had sensed something... Something _akin to danger_. Manabu quickly sat up from his bed, a throbbing headache and his vision darkening for a moment as he did so.He looked to the window close to his bed and saw that it was indeed night time and that the sun had set but, there was  a suspicious lingering of light outside. He coughed and stood up from his place, trying to find the light switch.

Once he had found the switch he was surprised by the amount of the smoke there was in his room. “What the fuck!” Manabu cursed as he frantically searched around his apartment as to where the source of fire may be coming from. His place was small and there were only three rooms in total, a bedroom, bathroom, and kitchen that he rarely used. He checked his kitchen frantically, but found no source of smoke nor fire at all. The smoke was getting thicker and thicker and Manabu was panicking as to where the hell could it be.

“Fucking hell, where--” He tried to find where it was coming from until he had looked up from hsi bedroom and found that there was a small patch from the roof that was darkening and that the source of the smoke was actually from his window.

“Shit!” He cursed again. It was from his neighbours upstairs! In a haste, Manabu tried to dress himself up as fast as he could; not caring anymore what shirt and pants he took but, he needed to help those people upstairs.

“Help! Fire!” He shouted to his neighbours, because it seems as though that the fire had only been starting and Manabu was the first one to actually notice it. “Fire! Fire!”

Their neighbours started to come out one by one in their apartments, following Manabu up one floor above. He tried to find the room above his, searching for the room numbers until he heard a shout. Manabu sprinted, finding the nearby fire hydrant as he went to the door and knocked frantically at the door.

“Hey! Open the door!” He shouted and as soon as he said so, the door was opened and--

“You...” Jin Said with wide eyes.

Manabu himself came to a pause for a moment. The two of them had stared at each other, shock etched upon each other’s features until something like glass breaking brought them back to reality.

“Shit! Move out of the way!”Manabu shouted at Jin.

As the blond did so, other patrons like Manabu came in with fire hydrants in their hands. About three of them had entered the room. The fire had originated from the kitchen, flames engulfing the stove and oven as well as the glass cabinet above it. Half of the kitchen was burnt but luckily, no one had gotten hurt.

A couple other patrons had helped by getting buckets of water but, it wasn’t much of a help. Only two or three  buckets of water could be used since, they couldn’t have way too many people squeezing into the small apartment. And better yet, the man whom was holding one fo the fire hydrants said in a hurry that it was better for only three people to enter so nobody else would get hurt.

It took at least 2 hours to completely extinguish the flames that had spread throughout the kitchen and even to the bedroom. Manabu was just glad that the fire hadn’t gotten bigger and that he had noticed quickly.

Who knows what the hell could have happened if he hadn’t woken up.

Manabu sat down against the wall separating thee kitchen and the living room-bedroom.There were smudges of dirt all over him but, all in all the raven was fine and pretty much exhausted as hell.

One of the men, Mr. Akazuki whom had helped extinguish the fires went up to him to ruffle Manabu’s hair. “Nice job kid.” The man said with a soft tired smile.

Manabu replied back with a smile.”Thanks, you too.”

The man bowed his head and went away leaving Manabu. The raven still felt a bit breathless, he had been inhaling smoke for almost 2 hours and being near such heat in a small enclosed room was really not something someone would want to look forward to.

He still felt the lingering touches of the adrenaline rush he had earlier. He stood back up and left the room, that is until he had remembered.

 _‘Jin... What was he doing here?’_  The thought had suddenly crossed his mind and he looked all around the apartment. Sure enough, with the problem in the room taken care of Manabu had the better state of mind and time to fully assess the room. There were a couple of magazines and books about cooking, materials for school and fliers  and brochures  about his school. But, the thing that really picked him off was those pictures on the table where a T.V. sat at.

That was Jin, Ryoga and a couple of other people he doesn’t know who but, is in the pictures with Jin. Manabu had to blink a few times to make sure that he was dreaming or hallucinating from the amount of smoke he had inhaled earlier. He looked all around the room and went outside; there were still a couple of people and a woman whom had earlier helped them out with extinguishing the fires.

“Excuse me,” Manabu said, trying to get a hold of the woman’s attention.

The woman turned around, offering a smile to Manabu. “Oh hello, thank you so much for helping out. I was so worried when I saw Jin’s apartment on fire!”

“Jin? Ah, where’s the guy who’s--” Manabu tried to finish his sentence but, the woman beat him to it.

“Do you mean the guy who lives here? Teishikata Jin. I think the landlord helped him and he’s in their office.” The woman said, trying to recall any other happenings. “Poor boy, he’s been locked up in that room of his for days! I hope he didn’t hurt himself.” She said.

Manabu bowed his head. “Thank you for telling me, I’ll check up on him.”

“Oh please do! Please tell him Tommy says hi! And I hope he’s alright!” The woman said as she waved and came back to talking to her neighbours.

Manabu was quick to run down the flight of stairs; the main office was on the ground floor so Manabu was hoping that Jin was still there. He didn’t care that still had smudges of dirt and that he currently looked like shit but, he wanted to see Jin.

He needed to know how the blond was doing.

Was he alright? Has he been doing alright? What was Jin doing? Why hasn’t he been to the cafe? What has he been doing these past couple of days?

What the fuck is Jin doing living in the same apartment building as Manabu and both of them hadn’t even noticed.

He came to the office a little breathless; he had been rushing as he had been practically _dying_  to see Jin. Manabu tried to fix himself up, be a little more presentable... Or as presentable as he can look in his state. Slowly, the raven opened the door to the room and immediately he saw Jin. It felt as though that even for a moment, Manabu had gotten a breath of fresh air and that his earlier thoughts of chaos was slowly simmering down.

As soon as he had entered the room, Jin’s eyes immediately came to him. They stared at each other for seconds until Manabu made the first move to walk and sit beside Jin.

There was silence in the air, a heavy atmosphere as Jin refused to look up to Manabu.

“It’s been awhile.” Manabu started anyways. “How’ve you been doing?”

“As you can see, not so good.” Jin replied back, hands fidgeting with on another.

“Yeah...” The raven agrees as he watches Jin. “I didn’t know you lived here.”

The blond shrugs, not responding back.

“Did you live there alone?” Manabu inquires yet, Jin refrains from giving anymore answers back to him. It seems that the blond has vouched to space out and stare into nothing instead.

Something that he and Manabu may have in common when problems plague the mind.

“Hey Jin, I--” Manabu started but, couldn’t finish his sentence when the landlord suddenly entered the room.

“Oshio-kun, you’re here.” Mr.Tanizaka said but, quickly averted his attention to Jin. “Teishikata, we need--”

“I don’t need you to call him!” Jin quickly shouted, standing up from his seat as tears seemingly started to appear in his eyes.

“Teishikata-kun, calm down. We just need  to inform your family--”

“I said it’s alright!”

“Jin!” Manabu quickly scolded the blond. “That’s no way to talk to your landlord.” Manabu said as he quickly bowed at Mr. Tanizaka. “I’m sorry he’s being rude. He’s probably just really shocked from what happened.”

“It’s alright, I understand. But, I’m just worried about Teishikata-kun. His brother needs to know about this.” The landlord stated.

“You can’t reach him. He’s in Paris right now.”Jin mumbled out.

“Any other relatives? Maybe Ryoga or Kai-san--”

“Don’t tell them about this!” Jin shouted, trembling.

Both Manabu and the landlord were left without words. The blond seemed to be truly against wanting to keep everything a secret.

“We can’t keep quiet about this Teishikata-kun, especially since your room was half burnt. You can’t even stay there anymore.” The landlord explained softly. “You’ll have to move in with a relative.”

Jin looked to be on the verge of crying and the sight itself pained Manabu. Without so much of thinking, Manabu turned to the landlord and said. “He can stay the night at my place. I’ll try to get in contact with his brother.”

“I appreciate that Oshio-kun, but I don’t want you to burden yourself too much.” Mr. Tanizaka said surprised at Manabu’s offer.

“I really don’t mind... I don’t think Jin has anyone he can call right now anyways.” Manabu replies back with a shrug.

“Manabu--” Jin tried.

“It’s fine. I don’t mind. It saves everyone the trouble.” The raven said with a smile.

The landlord seemed to slowly be warming up to the idea as he questioned. “I guess so, but I’ll still try to contact your brother Teishikata-kun.”

“Please don’t worry; I’ll take care of him.” Manabu said as he looked to Jin. “Let’s go?”

At those words, Jin seemed to come back from a trance as he looked to Manabu then, to their landlord before nodding and walking up close to the raven.

“I’ll try to pry his relatives contacts as well so, don’t worry Mr.Tanizaka.” He said as he bowed and added. “Good night, sorry for the trouble.”

“Sorry for the trouble.” Jin said as well as he bowed.

“You two get a good night’s rest.” The landlord said as Manabu and Jin exited the office.

It was a quiet walk from the office up to the floor of Manabu’s apartment. The raven had forgotten to lock his apartment which in a way works, since he was in too much of a hurry to remember doing anything anyways.

As soon as he had opened the door to his room, the sight of his messy room greeted them. Manabu couldn’t help his cheeks from burning hotly. He quickly turned around, trying to block Jin’s view. “I-I didn’t know anyone was coming over so please excuse the mess!” Manabu said in a haste of embarrassment. Jin has probably already seen it no matter how much he blocks the blond’s sight, and whether Manabu likes it or not, he had already invited the other to stay over...

He just wishes he had cleaned up earlier.

“I don’t mind.” Jin mumbled out weakly.

“Uhm, give me a sec.” The raven said as he left the door open for Jin to enter. In a hurry, Manabu picked up all the dirty clothes he left on the floor. Some he trashed onto the laundry basket nearby and others, he left on top of a chair. Some of his good clothes that he had recently brought from the laundry shop were still at one side of his room; he immediately gathered them all up in his arms then, stashed the said clothes to his closet. “Okay, I think I got most of them... I think I have spare pajamas you can use although, you can probably just go up to your room and collect some of your stuff right?” He continued to explain off but, Jin had only entered his room and continued to eye the entirety of it.

The blond’s eyes moved from one corner to another, from the book shelves that Manabu had to the kitchen that was almost clean due to the fact that Manabu only had use for it in storing his take outs and making coffee.

“The kitchen’s... Pretty clean.” Jin comments off as he walks over to Manabu’s study desk that had piles upon piles of books on top of it. “Can I take a shower?” He inquires, not looking at Manabu.

“Yeah sure.” Manabu replies back as he leads the blond to his bathroom. “I haven’t used up the hot water yet, so feel free to soak in there. I’ll get you some towels.” He adds off and as soon as Jin enters the bathroom; Manabu sprints off to find the cleanest towel he has.

He really should stop being such a slob of a person; although he’s pretty sure there are other rooms worst than, his. But, the fact is, Manabu currently has a guest in his house. A guest who will be staying the night and maybe, even more nights due to his current predicament.

“Ah shit,” Manabu curses under his breath as he tries to sweep the floor and hide his trash away from sight.

 _‘This is not kind of impression I want to give to Jin.’_  He muttered internally with a tsk. _‘Fuck, did I even clean the bathroom!?’_

After sweeping the floor with an almost light speed pace; Manabu had vouched to try and arrange his books so they all weren’t scattered about on his study desk. At that time, Jin had finished taking a bath and had emerged out of the bathroom.

Manabu had just finished cleaning up the 2nd pile of books on his study desk when Jin had entered. The blond was still fidgeting on his fingers and looked rather unsure and embarrassed. He looked down on the floor, not letting his gaze meet Manabu’s as  his entire body looked as though it was slightly reddening.

“I... I forgot to get my clothes from my room.” He said in a small voice.

The raven smiled, walking over to Jin as he lightly patted the other’s blond locks. “It’s alright, I have some spare pajamas here.” He said before going to his closet to get the said clean pajamas. “Here.” Manabu gave the clean clothes to Jin. “Just put them on at the bathroom.”

When Jin held the clothes in his hands, his grip was tight and he seemed to have shook as he did so. Manabu watched the younger, his body slowly failing him as it was now too evident that the blond was shaking violently. The little sniffles that Manabu had heard earlier had now only amplified and slowly, they turned into sobs. Drops upon drops of tears escaped his eyes as they formed little rivulets onto the blond’s cheeks.

“He-hey, what’s wrong?” Manabu inquired. It had surprised him; Jin’s sudden outburst was not something he had expected at all. “Hey, don’t cry.” Manabu said softly. He didn’t know whether or not he should hug the younger or let him be. The raven’s hands awkwardly hung above air as he was at a battle of what to do internally.

“Why?” Jin stuttered out in a midst of his sobs. “Why are you being so nice to me?”Jin questioned, hand rubbing on his eyes to cover his  shameful self to Manabu.

The question had caught Manabu off-guard. He hadn’t expected the younger to ask him that; truthfully, Manabu was only expecting something like Jin crying over his things or complaining as to why Manabu’s apartment was filthy as hell. But, to ask the raven as to why he had helped?

“Is it wrong to help you out?” Manabu inquired back to the blond as he took hold of Jin’s hands to prevent the younger from further covering himself. “I don’t know about you but, I just risked my life to help out a total stranger earlier just to find out that stranger was you. And hey, I would  do it all over again if I could because it’s pretty much the right thing to do.”He explained off, watching as Jin bit on his bottom lip and looked as though he was contemplating on his next action or just, thinking about the words Manabu had said.

“Don’t worry about a thing alright?” Manabu continued off, looking Jin straight in the eyes. “I don’t mind at all and honestly? I’m kinda thrilled to see you again.” His choice of words on the last may not be the best to say at the time but, there was a moment of silence between them. He had waited for Jin to reply back to him, but instead there was nothing but the air between them.

Both stared at each other’s eyes and for a split second, Manabu’s gaze lingered down onto the blond’s lips. He hadn’t noticed it at first, but somewhere along his lines Manabu had cupped Jin’s cheeks into his hands and was leaning in close to Jin. His breath got caught up in his throat and oddly enough, the action didn’t seem weird nor awkward at all.

Jin’s eyes fluttered to half-lidded as he leaned in close to the raven; and oddly enough again, Manabu saw nothing wrong with the action as he too leaned in to softly press his lips against Jin’s own plush lips.

The kiss was short and fleeting, only a touch of their lips before the two of them separated again.When Manabu opened his eyes again; he saw Jin and damn, did Jin look so beautiful.

Their kiss didn’t seem to satisfy either of them as both leaned in again for another. This time it was less innocent and more kiss hungry than, the first. Manabu’s right hand brushed forward to grab a lock of golden hair whilst his left went down to Jin’s nape, pulling the younger close to him.

Jin sighed into their kiss, seemingly melting against Manabu’s ministrations as the blond had placed his hands to the raven’s  waist. Clueless fingers gripped at the shirt Manabu wore; not knowing what to do to be exact but, he didn’t want it to stop. He wanted to kiss Manabu, to feel  more of Manabu, to touch him... He felt the raven lightly bit at his lower lip, making Jin whimper. It hurt him a tad but, it kinda hurt in a good way. When Manabu had moved to separate from Jin, the blond only lounged himself back to Manabu.

Jin pulled the other close, his lips tailing back to touch Manabu’s own as the blond wrapped his arms around Manabu’s waist.

The action had caught Manabu off-guard. He hadn’t expected Jin to come onto him and such, but feeling the other so close to him and just begging to be touched had rendered Manabu weak. He hadn’t meant to kiss Jin so passionately and as much as he lo-- _liked_  it he doesn’t want to take advantage of the younger. But, with Jin kissing him clumsily but, with so much enthusiasm and want it was enough for the raven to growl and lead Jin to his bed.

He had pushed the younger, hastily making the blond fall down on his bed as Manabu ravaged him. His kisses started from the lips, slowly descending down to Jin’s neck where Manabu sucked on the junction between the blond’s neck and shoulder. The action had erupted a cute moan to escape from Jin’s lips; feeling the younger tremble underneath Manabu’s ministration.

One hand had traveled down to Jin’s chest, lithe fingers caressing and massaging at Jin’s chest. Manabu felt the warmth that radiated from the other’s skin; and when he found the other’s nipple he couldn’t help but, pinch and toy with it. Jin’s reaction was phenomenal to Manabu. Hearing the younger gasp and his chest arch up to Manabu’s touch was simply delicious.And when Jin had accidentally thrust his hips up and brushed against Manabu’s own hardening member? Fuck, Manabu was losing his self-control faster than, when he was losing his cool with Jin.

He kisses the blond again, aggressive and demanding as the raven darts his tongue out to enter Jin’s mouth. One hand travels south, grabbing a hold of Jin’s arousal. The action had succeeded in making the younger moan and open his mouth for Manabu to explore. Their kisses were heated and a fight for dominance. Jin struggling in what little to next to no experience he has to kiss and reciprocate from the raven’s ministration.

Whilst Manabu’s right was busy on stroking Jin’s cock, his other hand was busy pushing his pants down. His member was hard and was in desperate need of attention. As his tongue distracted Jin in exploring his mouth; his hand had freed his dick from its confinements. He let his own arousal touch Jin’s and the sensation was mind-blowing. The touch had caught Jin’s attention as the blond broke from their kiss to stare down at their members that was currently being stroked by Manabu’s hand.

“Here, do this.”Manabu said in a husky whisper that had Jin shivering.

The raven’s hand lead Jin to their cocks, letting the younger wrap his fingers on both of their members. Manabu’s fingers intertwined with Jin’s own as they both started to pump their hands together.

Jin’s head arched back from pleasure; Manabu’s eyes gazing upon the sweat glistened skin on Jin’s neck. He leaned down, licking the sweat on Jin’s neck as the raven sucked on the other’s adams’ apple.

Jin’s hips thrust up against their hands, needing to feel more and reach his climax. His little gasps, pants and moans all sounded so erotic to Manabu. The raven fastened his pace, his dick rubbing against Jin’s oh so sensually, so fucking erotic, and too sexy that Manabu felt as though this was a new kind of addiction.

He could feel Jin quake underneath him, his breathing getting faster with each passing moment.

“Mana...” Jin strains to say, his hand grab a hold of Manabu’s shirt as he pulls the raven close to him.”Manabu...”

And fuck, was that the most erotic sound Manabu has ever heard in his entire life.

Manabu smeared the leaking precum from both of their cocks; using it as lube to keep their cocks slick.Their arousals were hot and throbbing; and with Jin’s whimpers he’s quite certain that both of them weren’t gonna last much longer. The blond’s legs shift a little more wider, giving Manabu the extra space he needed as he grinded down against the younger.

Jin’s voice came up a higher octave, his moans filling the room as their bodies were now sweating from each other’s body heat. Manabu’s other hand which now rested on Jin’s waist was slipping a little from the moist skin. But, it felt all the better, somewhat an allure in Manabu’s opinion and it was weird yet, satisfying.The light sound of their skins slapping could be heard and he groaned at the sound.Manabu leaned back down to bite at Jin’s collarbone, fuck he couldn’t control himself and that exposed skin was just _begging_  to be marked by the raven.

Jin seemed to be straining to keep his voice to himself yet, a small whimper escaped him saying. “I can’t... I can’t... Almost...” He said nearly breathless.

Manabu licked up his neck then, came to Jin’s face. Lips kissed the side of Jin’s own as their intertwined hands kept pumping their hard cocks. The blond gave out a low moan; Manabu watching and taking in every detail and couture of Jin’s face as he came into his release. The blond’s body shook in pleasure, his moan nearly inaudible and almost broken as his eyes closed shut in bliss.

Manabu would never be able to forget that look.

And it was the one that made him cum also. Jin looked so perfect underneath him, coming undone. Their releases spilled onto Jin’s stomach; creamy white cum tainting his skin. Manabu’s breathing got heavier as he gazed down on their seeds. He was tired from mostly having to please both of them but, fuck it it was worth it.

Now that their adrenaline rush had ended and both were weary; Manabu could feel his tiredness come to him in full force. Yet, the raven made sure not to fall on top of Jin, he hastily flopped down next to the blond. His eyelids felt heavy and his entire body was practically ready to shut down to get some well-deserved rest.

It was nice to finally release all of that pent up stress and frustration inside him.   


	9. Visit 07: A trip to the grocery store

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> GAAAAHHHH!!
> 
> I seriously went out of my way to not sleep properly for a couple of days just to finish all of my updates on time ;w; I finished this around today 27, the day where I usually post my updates ~
> 
> Gah, I was super busy with family events and like, writing my secret santa stuff XD
> 
> But I love this chapter! Even tho I had difficulties writing it, it was good <3 I hope you guys enjoy reading it! Things are just getting better and better =w=

          Manabu woke up to the smell of food being cooked; he stared up lazily at his room’s ceiling. The raven had contemplated for a moment if he really was awake or he was  still in his slumber. Because first and foremost, Manabu lived alone and the only time he had ever touched the kitchen was to make his mediocre coffee. And if he may add, the scent of omu rice being cooked smelled heavenly.

Now Manabu knows for sure that he’s probably half-dreaming because how could something so good like that be made in his apartment?

How...

He wondered for a moment as Manabu turned to his side and felt as though there was _something_  missing beside him.Manabu squinted his eyes and eyed the lightly crumpled bed sheets close to him and tried to retrieve the memories of the past night.

In an instant Manabu’s cheeks heated in both embarrassment and guilt. He remembered waking up to a fire then, immediately went up a floor to help extinguish it, just to find out later on that the apartment on fire was apparently Jin’s. He remembered helping the blond out in finding a new place to stay (because apparently, Jin didn’t want any sort of contact with the other people he currently knows of.) and one thing led to another...

The raven buried his face against the pillows, muffling out any screams that may want to escape from his mouth. He was trying to be a real nice guy towards Jin, trying to help out a kid whom just lost his place and god, how could Manabu take advantage of him like that?! Manabu felt the shame eating him up inside as the raven didn’t want to make one move out of the bed.

And god! He hadn’t even changed the bedsheets for months now! How could he let Jin sleep with him here!?

Not to mention he hadn’t even cleaned up properly after helping out with the fire!

Manabu is a disgusting excuse for a human being and he now has no face to show to Jin.

Yet, he couldn’t help the grumbling of that became more violent with each passing moment of Manabu inhaling the lovely scent of what he knows now to be Jin’s cooking. God, his treacherous stomach was being too selfish! Can’t his stomach understand that Manabu can’t face Jin because of his shame!?

Manabu sighs, he places a hand on his growling stomach.

 _‘It’d be rude if I don’t show up for breakfast.’_  He tells himself internally. _‘Also, more embarrassing if Jin himself comes here to tell me he made breakfast.’_  He adds off and shivers. _‘Fuck, no thanks. Don’t want to make him hate me all the more.’_

With much reluctance, Manabu sits up from bed and eyes the dirty bed sheets. “I’ll have to change these fuckers up first.” Manabu mumbles to himself begrudgingly as he immediately stands up from his place. He moved to the side of his bed, hands gripping on the hem of the sheets as he roughly pulls on them. He’s irritated by the fact that he hadn’t been thinking straight last night.

Why did he do that? How could he take advantage of his kouhai like that?

Manabu shivered at the thought. What did Jin think of him now? Probably that Manabu was some perverted weirdo and that after this they’ll probably talk about how Jin felt molested by his senpai and would immediately want to move out. Manabu sighs, shaking his head as he bundled up the sheets in his arms and throw it to the corner--

He should really get to cleaning his dirty clothes and sheets, they’re starting to pile up as high as mt. Fuji in the corner.

Slowly, Manabu makes his way out of the bedroom. He eyes his surroundings carefully, looking from left to right to see where Jin was. _‘Duh, obviously in the kitchen dumb-dumb.’_  He insults himself internally, making the raven mutter out a little curse.Manabu takes a deep breath, his hands were clutching tight on the edge of the door. He was trying to get as much courage as possible from what little time he had to face Jin.

 _‘You can do this. Don’t wimp out now.’_  He muses as Manabu fixes himself a little; brushing his bed hair down and even trying to flatten out the creases of his--

“Shit!” Manabu says out loud as he immediately shut the door with a loud slam. His cheeks brighten up in embarrassment as Manabu looks down on his wholly naked self. _’How the hell can I not notice I was naked!?’_  He thoughts to himself as Manabu was quick to scramble to his cabinet. In a haste, the raven rummaged through it and found a decent short, brief, and shirt to wear. Manabu immediately dressed himself up; he could still feel the burn on his cheeks. His thoughts had consumed him so much that he wasn’t even aware of himself anymore.

“Oh god,” He murmurs as Manabu shuts the doors of his cabinet only to have his head smack onto it in less than, a second. “I’m a wreck, I can’t face him.” He tells himself.

“No, you shithead. Get out there and face what you did!” The scolding part of his personality came out to tell him to face his bullshit. Manabu was yet again in another predicament wherein he didn’t know whether he wanted to jump out the window to avoid Jin and maybe even face possible death -to which at some point, is sounding like a pretty good idea- or to man up and talk to Jin and apologize for being such an asshole to the blond... To which Manabu may not be able to take the rejection and he’ll ultimately die in embarrassment and continue to wallow in self pity for all eternity till the end of time.

“Idiot, idiot.” He mumbled out to himself as Manabu repeatedly hit his head against his closet door.The action itself wasn’t really a productive thing to do nor was it helping him decide on what to do but, the comfort of pain and punishing himself for all the shameful and stupid things he had done in just the start of the day was very welcome.

“Okay, you got this.” He tried motivating himself this time.“Who care if you get rejected and Jin will ultimately avoid you for all time while, looking at your disgustedly?” He’s really not helping himself. “Yeah, that’s not so bad!” His way of motivating himself was self decapitating and downright wrong but, it Manabu to do things.

“God fuck, I’m horrible.” The raven muttered another defeated monologue as his legs slowly gave out and he was left with kneeling down on the ground.

“I can’t do this, I can’t do this.” He continues to murmur in both fear and nervousness. “Shit, but I need to do this!”He counter said.

Another hit of his head against hiss closet and Manabu opened his eyes with a look of pure determination. “You can do this! You gotta do this!” He tried to fight his depressive self off as he stood up with wobbly legs and a clenched fist. “I’m gonna talk to him and get my shit straight!” He said with a nod of his head.

“Or maybe not so straight, I’m not even straight..” He added off in a small murmur.

Manabu took a deep breath. _‘You’re just going to talk to him. You’re going to apologize and tell him how sorry you were.’_  He repeated his course of action in his head like a mantra, going at it over and over again just so he wouldn’t either forget, chicken out, or do anything else more stupid.

Another deep breath as Manabu had reached the door to his room; shaky hands grasped on the door knob as he slowly opened it. He peaked again from left to right, seeing if Jin was out there and not in the kitchen anymore. Yet, the sound of pans being used and a sizzling then, flipping sounds could be heard so Manabu had confirmed that Jin still hadn’t finished making breakfast.

He breathed in deeply again, trying to gather his courage one last time as Manabu stepped outside his room and slowly -with shaky legs- made his way to the kitchen-dining room part of his apartment. Manabu peaked his at the place first, seeing his blond haired guest cooking. Jin seemed to be humming as he cooked, looking too preoccupied with his work to actually notice that Manabu was looking at him. Manabu took in the sight of Jin, he almost looked like the perfect house wife with him cooking and humming and wearing Manabu’s clothes and-- Alright, he’s gonna stop because Manabu will not be able to handle the cuteness overload that’s happening in his head.

Jin may have sensed that someone was watching him because one moment Manabu was looking at Jin’s  back and the next thing that happened, Jin’s head whipped around to look behind him.

“Ah, you’re awake.” Jin said almost too casually that it shocked Manabu nearly speechless. “I’m almost finished cooking breakfast, do you mind setting up the table?”

Manabu had to blink a few times at Jin’s words before the request had sank down to him and Manabu nearly scrambled on his feet to get the plates and utensils. “Ye-yeah, I don’t  mind.” He answered back shakily as the raven took out two plates, mugs, and utensils then, set them down on the table.He looked to Jin again, watching the blond cook. But, it seems that Jin can always sense when Manabu was looking at him so they always ended up staring into each other.

“Is there something wrong?” The blond inquired albeit his tone of voice leaning a little close to worried.

“No, it’s nothing.” Manabu answered back _‘I’m just weirded out by how normal we  are right now.’_  He said internally, before grabbing the two mugs and asking. “Do you want some coffee?”

“You know I don’t drink coffee!” Jin turned again and darted his tongue out as though he was truly disgusted by the offer. “I’ll have milk instead, thanks.”

Manabu chuckled. “Yeah sorry, I forgot.” He said before going to the fridge to take out a carton of milk. He pours the milk onto Jin’s mug before going to the other side of the kitchen to make his morning coffee.

“Don’t forget important things like that! Coffee is too icky bitter.” Jin said before making a noise of gagging. “Coffee is like, for old people.” He chuckles.

“You’re hurting this poor old man’s heart you know?”Manabu jokes.

Jin starts putting their omu rice at a plate, finishing cooking it as he turns around and grins. “That’s the plan old man.” He laughs as he sets the food on the table then, looks around. “Where’s your kitchen?”

“Ah, it’s over here--” Manabu says as he goes to one cabinet to get the said ketchup just to find out that there’s not one. “We’re gonna have to eat that without ketchup, I think I forgot to go food shopping again.” The raven says with a sigh.

“What?! You’re kidding right?” Jin counters back flabbergasted. “We can’t eat omu rice without ketchup!”

“Well, this time we have to. Not unless you wanna go out to the grocery and buy it right now?” Manabu replies back with an inquiry as he arches up one brow in question.

The blond groans. “Oh god, this is every chef’s nightmare!” Jin complains as he sits himself down on the chair then, points to the one in front of him. “Sit and eat breakfast.” He ordered the raven as he himself started to cut the big omu rice he made for the two of them and get some for himself.

“Are you sure we can even finish this?” Manabu inquired as he looks to the food.

“You’re all skin and bones so, I thought you should eat a whole lot while I’m here.” Jin says with a firm now of his head.

“Wow, I’m so flattered.” Manabu says sarcastically with a roll of his eyes. Yet, there was a small smile on his lips. He appreciated the breakfast Jin made and it’s been a long while, since he had someone cook for him.

“We need to go food shopping by the way,” Jin brought up after he finished chewing and swallowing his food. “There is no way I’m staying at your place  when it doesn’t have enough food for me to cook _and_  you can’t even clean the place up.” Jin commented with a sigh.

Jin’s words made Manabu stop and look at the blond shocked. “You’re... Still staying?”Manabu inquired in a small meek voice. “I... I thought you wouldn’t... I mean, you’d want to move out because last night--”

“Woah,” The blond quickly cut Manabu off as he held up one hand to stop the raven from going any further.“Last night, we got off on a really weird and freaky situation.” Jin started off, his cheeks colouring bright red as the topic was brought up. “But, I’d really appreciate it if we just drop that memory from ever happening.”He said, looking to Manabu as though pleading for the conversation to end.

The raven was relieved that Jin had felt almost the same way about it; actually more than relieved since the blond didn’t seem to hate Manabu at all for last night. He smiled, taking a bite of his omu rice before saying, “Food shopping huh? I guess that could be your payment for staying here, cooking.” Manabu says with a chuckle.

“Of course! I’m gonna cook and probably even clean up your dirty place that you call an apartment as payment.”Jin replied back with a smirk.

“Ah,” Manabu breathed out, having to remember that his apartment really isn’t in the best of condition to even have a guest come over, even more so to have someone stay over. “Sorry, I’m just not really the cleaning type of person.” He admits as he takes a hold of his mug then, drinks his coffee.

“Yeah, I can tell by the state of your place.” He comments whilst looking all around. “Even your frying pans had cobwebs on them when I checked.”

Manabu nearly spit out his coffee.“They did!?”

Jin could only laugh at Manabu’s  reaction. “I’m joking! But really, they were  in such a horrible state earlier.” He sighs in dismay. “Do you even cook?”

“Not at all.” Manabu admit. “I survive by going to restaurants and ordering take out.” He says then, points to the myriad of restaurant fliers pinned at his fridge. “The pans are just for show to be honest.”

“Oh god, no wonder you look like the walking dead.” Jin comments with out with a tsk and shake of his head.“How do you even save money with that kind of life style!?”

 _‘By not eating or even forgetting to eat all together at times.’_  Were the words that Manabu wanted to reply with but, instead he shrugged his shoulders and said. “Let’s just say that I’m that good at handling money.”

“Or you’re actually really well off.” Jin throws out.

Manabu made a face of not actually denying it. “Could be,”

The rest of their breakfast went by in silence and the two just enjoying each other’s company and food. Jin was the first one to finish eating, having to eat more than, half of their omu rice whilst Manabu on the other hand was more than, satisfied with his one serving which did not even consist of 3/4 of their meal.

“You’re not really a big eater aren’t ya?” Jin comments off as  he places their plates on the sink and starts to clean them. “After I finish with these we should seriously arrange those books of yours in the living room.”

“No!” Manabu was quick to protest to Jin’s suggestion which made the blond arch his brow up at the raven. “I mean, I don’t really like my books getting shoved off into different places where I’ll have difficulty finding them.” Manabu mumbles out his reason, whilst sheepishly rubbing the back of his neck.”It’s just... When they’re stacked like that it’s easier for me to find stuff...”

Jin rolls his eyes at Manabu’s reason. “Fine, I’ll be cleaning up while _you_  arrange your books. Is that good enough?”He smiles at the raven.

Manabu grins.“Better. I hate cleaning.”He chuckles before disappearing off into the living room to arrange his books.

“Oi! Did you just trick me into cleaning all of this by myself!?” Jin shouts at the other and grumbles afterwards when he got no reply.

The rest of the morning was spent by Manabu organizing his books and Jin trying to clean. Manabu seemed like the type of person who really _hated_  cleaning. His broom was a task to find, the mop itself  was dirty, and Jin had difficulties in finding wash clothes to which he and Manabu had to scavenger a couple of cabinets here and there just to find them.

Jin started with the kitchen, of course he would since the kitchen would be the place he would use the most when staying with Manabu.There wasn’t anything much to clean aside from mopping the floor and getting the dirt out of the stove and etc. Jin knows for sure now that if ever Manabu had tried to cook, he knows it was a fail because he could see a burnt part of the stove to which was hell to clean up.

“I didn’t even know someone could hate cleaning this much.”Jin commented as he was starting to clean up the living room. He had finished with the kitchen and dining room, and now he was helping out in the living room and watching Manabu stack book after book in shelves. He doesn’t even know why the hell Manabu had billions of books, there was probably a book for every subject and some even came from other countries.

Jin’s pretty sure he saw one that’s written in Chinese or was that Korean?

He’s not sure but, Jin knows for a fact now that Manabu is one weird book hoarding dude.

And if he’s gonna be honest, it’s kinda cute.

If it wasn’t for the fact that the apartment he’s living in is quite a shithole that doesn’t get cleaned.

“I just don’t like it.” Manabu says with a shrug.

“Dude, I found a glass of juice by the corner that’s I don’t know... Probably a YEAR old by now?!” Jin said with much emphasis on the _‘year’_  part.

Manabu shrugs again but, this time with a sigh. “I forgot about it alright?”

“How can you forget something like that?!” Jin exclaims out.

“Stop judging me! I can’t always remember things!” Manabu retorts back.

“You’re hopeless.” Jin says lastly as he looks away but, suddenly his stomach starts growling. The blond places a hand to his tummy then, looks up to the walls to see if there’s a wall clock somewhere. “Hey, what time is it?”

Manabu looks away from his work to gaze at Jin before he looks around. “Let me check my phone.” Manabu says as he moves to his bedroom to check his phone. “It’s quarter to three already!” He shouts out to Jin.

“Oh shit seriously?!” Jin replies back.”We haven’t even had lunch yet!”The blond exclaims out as he quickly goes to the kitchen to clean his hands. “Manabu-senpai, let’s go grocery shopping for lunch.”

“Eh?” Manabu poked his head out from the bedroom. “I don’t wanna go out! Let’s just order take out.”He complains.

“No, you have to eat something that isn’t take out. And besides, I told you my payment would be cooking for you right?” Jin says as he flat out rejects Manabu’s whining of not wanting to go out. “Besides, some sun would do you good.” He adds off, hands resting on his waist.

“Can’t you just go grocery shopping without me?” Manabu says this time.

“How will I know what kind of food you like if you don’t go with me?” Jin counters with a question.

“Touche, but can’t you just pick from the ones I ordered back at the cafe?” Manabu pushes on.

Jin rolls his eyes at the raven’s persistence. “From what I remember, you ordered chicken sandwich, croissants, and the rest was pasta. Now, I don’t know about you but, eating those everyday ain’t exactly healthy you know?” The blond states off, daring Manabu to continue arguing back to him.

Manabu slumps his shoulder, head bowed down in defeat.“Fine.” He agrees with much reluctance.

“Don’t worry, I’ll pay for half of the groceries.” Jin says with a smile.

“Darn right you should.” Manabu grumbles. “Give me a second to change clothes. Do you want to borrow some?”

“That’d be nice yeah. Just give me a jacket and pants.”

After settling with their clothes, Manabu locked the door to his apartment and they went to the nearest grocery store. Yet, amidst their walk a sudden thought came to Manabu.

“Hey, how are you gonna pay for half of the groceries?” The raven inquired.

The question caught Jin to a halt, the blond’s eyes widening in realization before muttered. “Shit!”Jin cursed, looking to Manabu. “I forgot my wallet at my apartment!”

Manabu couldn’t help but, laugh at Jin’s face.

“I knew I was forgetting something when we walked out of our apartment building.” Jin grumbled. “I’m gonna go back and get my wallet.” The blond said but, before he could sprint off Manabu stopped him.

“Don’t bother, just let me withdraw from my bank and I’ll pay for now.” Manabu said with a smile, lightly patting Jin’s arm.

The blond pouted, obviously not liking the other’s idea. “But, that’d be unfair! I can’t let you pay for everything!”He argues back.

“Do you really want to run all the way back to our apartment? Seriously, just pay me back when we get home. I don’t mind.” Manabu said as he grabbed a hold of Jin’s arm then, started dragging him along. “Besides, the market’s already there. I wanna go home as soon as possible so don’t bail out on me.”  

“But, senpai!” Jin said but, was quickly cut off.

“No buts! We’re already here so quit whining.” Manabu says with a laugh as they stop by the ATM machine first. Manabu takes out his wallet to insert his card. “Don’t look.”He tells Jin.

Jin puffs out his cheeks, rolling his eyes away. “Like, I’d steal your rich ass’ money.”He says whilst crossing his arms against his chest.

The raven chuckles, taking his money from the machine before looking to Jin. “You never know.”He says as he lightly bops the tip of Jin’s nose. “Anyways, let’s get going. I hate going out.” He walks to the market first, leaving Jin tailing behind him.

“Why do you say you hate going out?” Jin inquires as Manabu gets a grocery cart.

“Because I hate going out?” Manabu replies back to Jin whilst having a _‘duh’_  look etched upon his features.

“No seriously, I find that hard to believe!” Jin continues off as they go to the vegetable section. “I mean, I see you almost _everyday_  at the cafe. You can’t tell me you hate going out.” He explains off as he gets a couple of carrots, cabbages, lentils, shiitake mushrooms and potatoes.

“Ah, that’s because I love that park.” Manabu answers in all honesty, a smile plastered on his lips as he puts in tomatoes and lettuce inside their cart.

“See? You don’t like going outside!” Jin said with a smile as they move to the other aisle.

“Actually I do. The park is just exceptional, it’s  my favourite place.” Manabu explains off as they go to the meat section this time. “Should we have shabu-shabu later?”  The raven inquires as brought up in his hand an assortment of pork and beef in one little container.

“Oh, so is that why you’re always at the cafe?” Jin inquires more as he looks to the packet Manabu was holding. “Oh yeah definitely! It’s been a while since I had shabu-shabu!” Jin answers in total glee, taking a few more of the meat packets. “I love pork on shabu-shabu a lot.”He turns around and asks. “Should we get more vegetables?”

“If you want, I don’t mind eating vegetables.” Manabu says as he walks a bit more then, grabs a package of bacon.“Breakfast tomorrow?”

“Definitely!” Jin nearly squeals in delight. “I can make bacon wrapped sausages tomorrow!”

“Oh, I like the sound of that. I’ll buy more then,” Manabu says. “We have to budget these by the way.”

“You’re the one who said to buy more, now you’re suddenly saying to budget these?” Jin says with a laugh. “Anyways, cooking oil and eggs. I barely made our breakfast earlier! I had to pick out which eggs were still good enough to cook!” He complains with a pout.

“Remind me again who’s paying for these?” Manabu interjects.

“Well, you pushed to pay for everything right?” Jin replies back innocently with a smile. “Besides, I’m paying for them later.”He continues off as they buy sausages and eggs. That was, until Jin spotted chicken fillets. “You want to eat chicken fillet?”

“I’m down for anything, so if you see something you want to buy just dunk it here in the cart.” Manabu replies back as he grabs tonkatsu pork and puts it in their cart.

“Alright, whatever you say.” Jin replies but, before he could put the fillet in their cart, he checks the prices first and and decides which one to choose.

“Come on, choose faster.” Manabu complains.

“Shush! Don’t rush me.” Jin scolds the raven.

“I wanna finish this as soon as possible so pick already.”

The blond chortles at Manabu before picking one of the fillet packets. “There, you happy now?”

“Very, now to the next one.” Manabu says. “We should’ve made a grocery list by the way.”

“Don’t worry, you have me so no need for them.”Jin answers with a wink as they get to the bread section.

“You know I like croissants.” Jin says as he holds one up. “Sometimes, they look like makeshift mustaches.”He chuckles while putting one plastic contained croissant near his lips.

Manabu laughs, putting a couple of wheat breads and french breads on their cart. “You’re a fucking weirdo.”

Jin sticks his tongue out at the raven. “You just don’t know how to appreciate comedic genius!” The blond starts off as he places a couple of cinnamonrolls and ham and cheese croissants. “You know, I can totally make these instead of us buying them.” Jin points out as a matter of fact.

“Yeah, only if we had an oven in the apartment.” Manabu counter replies as he nods his head to Jin. “No need to prove your skills to me. Besides, I don’t know if my mediocre kitchen can even suffice to your liking.”

“You kitchen is just fine!” Jin assures the raven a they ended up picking out cooking oils this time. “And which one do you want? This one is organic.” Jin tells Manabu as he shoves two different branded cooking oils into Manabu’s face.

“I told you, just pick out anything. I’m not good with these.” He tells the blond.

“Well, you should at least learn to cook for yourself while, I’m here you know?” Jin says to Manabu as he puts one of the cooking oils into their cart.

“You’re gonna be cooking for me. I don’t see how I should feel the need to learn it.” The raven shrugs as they move to another aisle. “By the way, are you sure you don’t want to tell Kai-san about what happened?” Manabu questions this time, looking over to Jin. “You can’t hide in my place forever you know? I don’t want them getting worried.”He says the words as gently as he could, not wanting to get Jin mad. It’s true that he wants to help Jin but, having the blond not tell his guardians or even worse, his family that a fire had broke out from his apartment and he was now living with a guy whom he’d only met for over 2 weeks now really wasn’t a good situation to be in.

“Jin, we need to tell them.”Manabu pads softly to the subject.

He can see Jin sigh and his shoulders sag down. “I know I’m intruding in your place.” The blond starts off, looking at the canned goods that they were passing by. “And I really appreciate you sticking up for me yesterday but...” He comes to a stop before looking to Manabu and nearly pleading. “Please give me one more day to stay.”

The looks Jin gives him was enough for Manabu to literally say yes, to let Jin stay as long as he wants in his apartment. But, he knows that as a responsible person he shouldn’t allow this, he shouldn’t let Jin’s family let this situation become unknowable. He sighs, giving Jin one more look before. “One more day. But, tomorrow we’re telling Kai-san--” He says before having remembered. “Wait, didn’t the landlord said you have a brother? Or at least your parents? We should contact them instead.”

 

“No! You can’t!” Jin shouts, causing a couple of the grocers to look at them. Jin’s cheeks colour from his little outburst as both him and Manabu move to the next aisle instead. “My parents are dead.” Jin whispers lowly to Manabu as the the raven was choosing what bread jam to buy.

“Your brother then,” Manabu says easily as he picks out strawberry and grape jams, as well as peanut butter.

“N... No...” Jin mumbles out making Manabu look at him for an explanation. “I... I don’t want to bother him.”The blond tries to busy himself by choosing which jam to buy and ends up getting an orange marmalade.

“Jin, your house just got caught on fire. I don’t think he’ll be seeing this as a bother.” Manabu tells the blond and continues off. “Not unless he’s some asshole douchebag?” He inquires with an arch of his brow.

“Of course not!” Jin was quick to come to his brother’s defense. “I just... He just got engaged recently and he’s having fun planning out the whole wedding thing with his fiance and I don’t want to be the bearer of bad news to his happy life style right now.” Jin explained off; hands fiddling with one another nervously.

“You do know that that’s such a low reason to not tell him right?” Manabu says as they move over  to the tea section of the market. “He’d be worried sick over you if he ever found out. Nonetheless, you’re staying over at a complete stranger’s apartment.”Manabu counters his own logical and very rational explanation.

“You’re  not a complete stranger!” Were the only words that poured out from Jin’s lips. “You’re my senpai!”

“You’re not even enrolled at my school yet,”

“But, I’m gonna enroll there! And-and you’re a regular at Onii-chan’s cafe! So, you’re basically not a stranger anymore!” Jin tried to salvage himself yet, Manabu heard that one little slip up.

“Your brother owns the cafe?” He inquired and Jin’s eyes widened. The blond looked away, one hand seemingly wanted to touch up to his lips as though he could take back the words  he had said.

Manabu sighs shaking his head. “Is your brother Kai?”

Jin shakes his head at the question. “No, he’s Onii-chan’s bestfriend.”He answers.

“So, he can basically be your guardian as well huh?”

“Yes--no. Manabu-senpai please.” Jin pleaded.

“Don’t call me senpai, you’re not even my kouhai yet.” Manabu replies back. “You’re trying to be really polite right now and all that but, I know you’re doing that so I wouldn’t tell right?” The raven states off firmly, knowing very well that Jin had been acting all nice since this morning was also because of that.”And really, I know you don’t want to get into trouble with your family but, think about this more clearly Jin.” Manabu takes a stop to place a hand on Jin’s shoulder.

“And think about the people around you as well. Our landlord is worried sick, not to mention the heap of complaints he’ll get once they find out.” The raven says gently. “And me. I’m sorry but, I like the cafe and Kai-san  and even, Ryoga but, if they find out that I’m doing this. Keeping this secret from them and letting you stay at my apartment they’ll end up getting the wrong idea. So, I hope you think about the situation here more Jin.”

It seemed that the younger had listened to Manabu, not uttering a word yet, Manabu could see Jin bob his head in affirmation with each sentence that passed by Manabu’s lips.

“Jin.” He called out to the blond to which Jin looked up to gaze at the raven.”We’re gonna talk when we get back to the apartment alright?”Manabu said with a smile. “Besides, I can’t wait to eat that shabu-shabu.” He continues off, trying to lighten the mood. ”How about we get some chips or cake on the way back? Ya know, something sweet for afterwards.” He offers with a grin.

In an instant, Jin’s features seemed to lighten up at the idea and he nodded enthusiastically. “Definitely! I want strawberry shortcakes!” Jin answered in glee as he happily picked out cartons of milk and orange juices from the next aisle.

“Oi, why do you get to be the one the choose what flavour?” Manabu inquires with a laugh, glad that he was able to lift up Jin’s mood just as quickly.”Ah, don’t get orange! I want apple juice this time.” Manabu complains out the blond.

“Because, cake is for the sweet tooth  and I know that if you pick out a flavour, you’ll pick something like mocha.” Jin explains off as a matter of fact as he changes doesn’t change the juice. “Also, you need to drink orange juice. You look a little _too_  low on vitamin C.”

“How the hell would you know if I was low on vitamin C?” Manabu questions. “And alright, I get you. But, I was gonna let you decide anyways. Why don’t we get vanilla mousse instead though?” Manabu suggest.

“Ah! Vanilla mousse! That sounds heavenly!” Jin answers back in joy before adding off. “Because you’re pale as fuck, that’s how I know you lack vitamin C.”He says off smugly.

“I had no idea being pale can equal to lacking vitamin C.” Manabu says with a sigh. “What a tragedy... You’re drinking that apple juice all by yourself by the way.”

“What!? Why?!” Jin inquires. “Don’t you like orange juice?”

“Not really, the taste doesn’t go well with me.”It was Manabu’s turn to stick his tongue out.

“Mou, you shouldn’t be so picky!” Jin scolds the raven as he goes to the baking section. “Can I get a few baking materials before we go?”

“Wow, look who’s taking!” Manabu retorts back with a laugh. “And yeah sure, but where are you gonna bake?”The raven asks.

“Oh shit, I forgot you don’t have an oven!” Jin says before groaning.

Manabu could only laugh at the blond. “Yeah, you’re pretty forgetful aren’t ya?” He says as he lightly pats the blond’s hair; Jin looks up at him pouting.”Anyways, if you have nothing else to buy we should get going?”Manabu asks the younger.

“Yeah, I guess that’s all.” Jin says as he eyes their cart. “Hopefully, you’ll eat better thanks to this.” He teases.

“For your information I do eat.” Manabu retorts back as they starts walking off to the cashier.

“Not healthy at least.I mean, who lives off on take out?” Jin retorts as they start to put their stuff at the cashier’s place.

“Me apparently.” Manabu argues back. “What do you have against my life style man? You trying to pick a fight with me?” He laughs.

Jin fakes a gasp.”Of course not! I would never pick a fight with you senpai!” The blond says before laughing along with Manabu.

They leave the market in a good mood and talking to each other about other things that aren’t related to the fire incident. Manabu talks about their school, maybe even persuading Jin to really enroll there even though, the blond already looks as though he’d already made up his mind and would go to Manabu’s high school.

Afterwards, they go to the nearby cafe to buy Jin his vanilla mousse. It was least to say that Jin was totally ecstatic on their way home.

“So, you’re part of the book and newspaper club huh?” Jin says as both him and Manabu were walking down the hall to the raven’s apartment. “You must be a great writer!” Jin compliments.

“Not really, I’m more of an editor. I’ll read the other’s articles and copy or proofread them. Or I can also layout the newspaper.” Manabu answers back easily; he’s all too flattered that Jin seemed to be really interested in the clubs he joined. Normally, people would either make fun of him or drop the subject immediately since it wasn’t interesting enough.

“That’s so awesome---”

“Jin!” The voice that called out to the blond was all too familiar and  the two teenagers whipped their gaze to the front only to see Kai standing at the entrance of Manabu’s apartment.

“Oh shit.” Jin muttered out as they both saw the angry look on Kai’s face as he started to walk down to the duo alongside their landlord behind Kai.


End file.
